Christmas Shopping

We have a very large family.

Traditionally, Brent and I would buy one gift from he and I and one from the girls for each adult and kid in the family.

Madison is now 9 and Shayna is 15 so we decided that they could buy the gifts for their 8 cousins and each other with their own money. We explained to them that the cost of the gift did not matter but we felt it was important for them to learn the art of gift giving.

Last night after work and school respectively we headed to the bank to get their money out of their savings accounts. On the way we discussed how much money to withdraw and Madison said that if she only took out $40 then that would only be $5 each person so she wanted $80 to which Shayna said she wanted $100 just to be safe.

Off we go to the shopping center to Claire's since you can find lots of fun stuff for kids there for not a lot of money. Madison was very good about finding the perfect thing for each person and keeping it within her budget. She took all her purchases up to the counter and got rung up and her total was $94 and some change. She very carefully opened the envelope with all her hard earned money inside and pulled out a crisp $20 and placed it proudly on the counter. The salesgirl looked at me so I had to explain to Madison that she needed to hand over ALL of her money. She got $5 and some change back which she quickly spent on some reindeer slippers at Old Navy for herself.

After all the shopping we had a nice meal at the Taqueria La Salsa and then headed to Starbucks for an after dinner coffee or peppermint hot cocoa. It was a great night, even for me who hates to shop. I was very proud of our girls they did a great job and really seemed to enjoy shopping for others. They were also proud of themselves which is the best gift of all.