THIS CHRISTMAS

I know every parent thinks their child is perfect and amazing... but mine really is.  :)

Seriously though, she's perfect for our family and such a blessing in so many ways.  Among those is the fact she's so well behaved (for now... most of the time).  We were doing some last minute Christmas shopping in the mall before the big day and decided to grab a bite to eat at the food court.  Before we left, two older ladies stopped by our table to let us know they couldn't help but see us from where they were sitting and had never witnessed such a well mannered toddler before.  Completely out of the blue!  It's little things like a small compliment that make you feel like you're doing something right.  Let's be honest, as parents we're pretty much making it up as we go along with the goal of keeping our little ones safe so it's nice to hear positive feedback once in a while.

Since Madison has been a good girl this year, we asked Santa to be good in return.  And since mood boards are all the rage these days in blog-world, I figured why not get in on the action... below you'll find some of her favorite gifts from the jolly old man (and us, too) this Christmas.

1.  A tweed blazer for a toddler?  We couldn't pass it up and she actually got this as an early gift and wore it to a few holiday parties leading up to Christmas.  You can find it here, but get it quick - it's almost gone.

2.  Every girl needs pots and utensils to cook with, right?  I suppose she would need a kitchen though...

3.  Who doesn't enjoy a play house?  Especially one with polka dots and window cut outs that hangs from the ceiling!  Once we found this, we knew it would be hanging in her room by New Year's.

4.  A tea set.  Does this need an explanation?  It's an Eco-friendly set from here.

5.  If you're having tea, then you need a table to set... we found ours here.  Sure we probably could have built one, but we're not exactly the most handy people plus we got it on sale.  Joy to the world!

6.  She has a sock monkey that she sleeps with every night and this zebra is similar in size and construction so we figured she would enjoy him, too.  I'm sure he'd like some tea at that table.

7.  Madison is mesmerized by The Wiggles so a DVD with their biggest songs was a must have.  For the record, I think this show is a little odd... four grown men dancing around and singing songs isn't exactly my idea of a great time.  However, it's entertaining and educational and she loves it so my opinion is null.

8.  Pajamas from our favorite pajama place... she's in to giraffes lately.

9.  A modern, fun kitchen set.  This is probably my favorite gift of hers, we knew well in advance that she would be getting one of these for Christmas.  Every time we went somewhere that had a play kitchen, she was all about it.  We actually have an empty wall off to the side of our kitchen where this will live so we wanted it to be more neutral and not in-your-face primary colors so we opted for the subtle a-kid-cooks-here vibe instead.

Does anyone find it hard to decide which gifts Santa brings and which ones you give as parents?  We basically decided anything requiring assembly would be given by Santa... so the elves could put it together, of course.  Now it's time to go through all of her old toys and donate the ones she no longer plays with - this makes me think of Toy Story 3 every time.