Handmade for the Holidays

Elijah received many different gifts for Chanukah this year, and seems to love them all. I was a bit wary at first for the potential for gift overload, especially with his birthday coming up next week. Last year he didn't quite get all the excitement and craziness of exchanging gifts during Chanukah, and seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual gifts on his birthday. This year he seems to have more stock in the whole idea of gift giving and receiving. What is so sweet, is that Elijah loves to give gifts, as much as (if not more than) giving them. He has gone on at length about the gift we bought and shipped out to his cousin Jojo in Oregon, and reminds me "Ima! gift Jojo? package? yay!". He relished the idea of hanging Marc and I our gifts during Chanukah and helping us open them. Opening his own gifts was a second thought. I am hoping this spirit of giving lasts through the years, as it is very inspiring. It may be genetic, as both Marc and I also love to give presents and "fight" with each other over who should open their gift first(we always want the other one to go first!).
It also made me happy that some of the gifts that he has received have been homemade. An overflow of noisy, plastic, soon-forgotten-about toys is not something we want to fill our homes with, and it seems that our family and friends feel the same way, for which we are extremely appreciative. In fact, two of Elijah's favorite gifts have been handmade. The first is the set of aprons that Savta made for us. Elijah makes sure that we take them off their hooks each time we go into the kitchen to cook. He loves that each one has pictures of us painted on to them, and that his has a special pocket for a spoon or rogue carrot stick.


Elijah's other favorite present came from one the Fletchers - a family in our weekly potluck. We had our 2nd annual "Secret Solstice" exchange a few weeks ago and they had made Elijah a set of wooden characters from Sesame Street(you can see more of the creative gifts Lex made on her blog!). They were a big hit, and Elijah has a blast playing with them. Sometimes I'll join in and play with him, but the magical moments have happened when I've been sitting up on the couch, reading, and I'll look over and Elijah is positioning his Sesame gang in one of his wooden trucks, explaining to them how they are headed to the park. Or, the other day, he came up to me asking for a blanket. I looked at him curiously, as there was a big, knit blanket right by his feet. But he actually needed a much smaller blanket, as his gang were all neatly laid out on a pillow and ready for nap time. I tossed him a cloth napkin that doubled as a blanket and Elijah tucked them in, whispered "shhh" and then went off to play with something else. The fact that these toys can unleash such creative play from Elijah make them a winner in my book.



And just today, Elijah opened up a gift from our friend Lucy and we were amazed at the handcrafted awesomeness that lay inside! Lucy knew that Elijah had gotten a new, wooden kitchen for Chanukah and so she made him an apron and some amazing felt play food as well as a great tote bag to carry it all around in. Thanks Lucy!!