Confession

It’s hard to believe Christmas is just a few weeks away and it’s time for our annual shopping trip (we don’t do Black Friday).  Of course, like most of our shopping trips, my main objective will be lunch and laughing—a lot.  But I will be looking because I haven’t picked anything up yet (yes, I’m running late). 

I must confess it has been years since I have spent a lot of money on the kids’ Christmas gifts.  I rarely go into the main toy section.  I love my great nieces and nephews but they have huge families and usually make out like bandits. 

In recent years, it has been my mission to find junk—that preferably makes noise—which will last a few months, give the recipient a lot of joy but not be missed when it breaks (or the batteries run out).  A couple of years ago, all the great-nephews received a cheap harmonica.  I expected them to be broken in a month or two.  Almost a year later, my nephew, Jason was fussing about his boys still playing those harmonicas.  I had to laugh.  Especially after Tasha, his wife, pointed at him and said he was the worst offender.

A month ago, I was talking to Noah (son of a friend) about Legos™.  I know my nephews loved them but they went by the wayside when they got big enough to get into sports.  I am well aware that there are people who use Legos™ to create all kinds of things.  I know there are Lego™ movies and that they have a website where you can build a Lego™ world. 

Still… I was in for culture shock.   Noah is addicted to Legos™.  He was on the lego.cuusso website looking at Lego™ projects that individuals have designed and uploaded.  The designs with 10,000 likes are reviewed quarterly and one will be considered for production by Lego™.  When you ‘like’ a project, they asked three questions:  why do you like it, what would you pay for it and how many would you buy.  When I saw the price Noah said he would pay for the ones he supported… Yeah! culture shock. 

Definitely made me leery of the main toy section.  So while everyone else is shopping for that one gift, I’ll be over in the junk section picking up the noisiest things I can find. 

Nothing like the look on the parents’ faces when my gifts are opened.