When I asked Mimi who she loved best in her class she named one, then another, another, oh and him, and her, and so on until we went through the whole class. I've blogged before about Mimi's super-human ability to talk without breathing (when she was discussing with me what's great about pirates), and so it should come as no surprise that she loves everyone and wanted to give each and all a Christmas present.
While trying to decide on a fast and affordable way to buy or make 20 presents I found myself standing in the stationary section of the supermarket. Last week I blogged about how to appeal to the 5 senses while wrapping gifts. To practice what I preach in a fun and educational way, I bought three things; a packet of coloured pencils, a pack of pencil grips, and a box of pencil-end erasers. Mimi helped me put them all together and here's what we came up with;
Sight - Each pencil was pretty enough on its own, but when collected for handing out, the rainbow hues were even more pleasing. Mimi took great pleasure in picking out each color for each friend, "he just loves green, and she'll loooove this pink," which added a personal touch.
Touch - To make the pencil seem more special, Mimi selected a 'squidgy' pencil grip to match each pencil. The glitter added some festive sparkle, and the soft rubber was fun to feel.
Smell - On the end of each pencil we added erasers with different 'fruit-fragrances' which sounds a bit yuk, but was actually not too bad.
Sound - After thinking about mini bells and other sound makers, I decided the sweetest sound was "Merry Christmas" from one four year old to another.
I missed out on taste. It was a deliberate decision. I had considered strapping a candy-cane or small Santa-chocolate to each pencil, but Mimi's school is plagued by serious food-allergies, and even more food-intolerance, and I dread the thought of accidentally putting a child in hospital, so taste was ditched, and had to be absorbed by the fruity-rubber-smell in this instance. As I always say in my craft ebooks - if in doubt; leave it out.
For the cards, I'd like to say we made 20 gift tags, but we didn't. Instead we bought a packet from our local Dollar Store, and then Mimi recited a short message to add to each one, such as "I can't stop looking at your beautiful face" or "even if I had no fingers I would still love you," and then she 'signed' her name. The card-writing was the longest part of the whole process... but worth it. The children loved their presents, and their parents had a good chuckle over the cards!
PS - if you're wondering about the no-finger comment, as I was, the explanation was; "you know... if I had no fingers I wouldn't be able to give a really big hug... but I'd still love her anyway." ... and on that note - go vote for your favorite Christmas tree material - over there --->