First Christmas Surprise!

This morning, Katie Anne got her first Christmas surprise!  When she woke up this morning, I took her into the living room to show her the pile of presents I'd been waiting to give her since I ordered them in July!

But why, you may ask, would she be opening Christmas gifts in November?  What kind of craziness is this?  Well, these are special Christmas surprises that need to be enjoyed all December long.

For a little background on this idea, my parents have a little wooden nativity set.  It is filled with very tiny, cute, simple wooden animals and people, and Greg and I totally loved this nativity.  I always looked forward to getting that wooden set out of the attic and putting the little green and brown stable together and arranging the tiny animals and people.  My favorites were the three kings, but the little tiny Baby Jesus was pretty cute, too.  One of our favorite things to do was to rearrange the nativity scene and play with it throughout the month of December.  Even after I got too old to really play with the nativity set, I still enjoyed setting up the whole scene.

So, I wanted to have a special toy that my kids could play with during the month of December that they looked forward to each holiday season.  Also, the nativity set is a great way for kids to explore the Christmas story.  Plus, I like the idea of kids having something safe to play with in the midst of all the breakable Christmas things.  I knew I couldn't find that same wooden set (I've never seen one even similar to it), but I was on the lookout for a kid-friendly nativity set for this year - and hopefully many years to come.

In July, I got an email from Fisher Price that their Little People Christmas Sets were on sale during their Christmas in July extravaganza.  I went online and looked around, and I saw that the Little People - who Katie Anne loves - have their own Christmas Collection ... and it was all on sale!  I got all three pieces of the nativity scene (the inn, the stable, and the three kings) for only $67 (normally $77), plus the Little Drummer Boy set was thrown in free!  Then, if I spent four more dollars, I got free shipping, so I threw the clearance-priced Santa Claus Christmas Train in the mix, too.  Wow- five magical Christmas Little people sets for only $75 - plus free shipping!

I was so excited to give them to her this morning ... the reason I picked today to give the Little People to her is because we are putting up our Christmas tree today.  So, I thought it would be a great kick-off to the Christmas season ... and give her something to do while we did all the heavy lifting involved in the whole Christmas tree setup!  She absolutely loved having early presents to open, and she was so excited when she found out there were Little People inside the boxes!

Okay ... Google storage upgrade purchased ... on with the post ...

Katie Anne found Baby Jesus

So excited to set it all up!

She absolutely loves the nativity set.  She literally played with it all day long, from the time she opened it at breakfast time until bedtime. (And, since I'm going back to complete this post on Monday due to picture issues, I can tell you that she played with it all afternoon today, too.)  I'm so glad we got it for her!