Christmas presents

With a traveling and moving lifestyle like mine I automatically keep a life fairly minimalistic in terms of materialism. Zoe has few toys compared to other two year olds (what I have seen at friend's houses and based on comments I get) and I try to keep my things to what I need, not what I want. I'm not as good as some others but I like the practice of recycling good quality stuff rather than buying new things all the time.

This Christmas I was a bit concerned with Zoe's presents; she had a few key things on her list that she had specifically mentioned when in a toy store and she always likes books and nice clothes. But with many people wanting to buy her presents, I was worried she would have a hard time dealing with all of if and not appreciate any of it. I ended up doing what many parents do: spread out the presents from the 23rd all the way to the 28th with most of the presents of course on Christmas eve but her dad's present the 25th and my friend's present the 28th. She did really well and was almost as excited when giving presents than when receiving them. As long as she got to unwrap whatever present it was.

Look at my new playground!

She got four favorite things: A wooden playground from my brother, a xylophone from my friend in Stockholm, a doll in a car seat from my mom and a doll changing set from her dad. Listed in no particular order. Nobody gave her bad quality useless presents and she didn't get that much after all. She spends time playing with each in turn, fortunately less with the xylophone here after new years. I think we are continuing the minimalism lifestyle fairly well with the addition of a few really good presents. But now once in a while she does ask: "more presents for Zoe?"