It's that time again...time for a crazy Christmas wish list.

Obviously I was a little bitter last night. Hopefully it was obvious that it's all the crazy people who act like complete nutjobs that seriously dishearten me. I always get a touch of the blues during the "holiday shopping season" because I worry about consumerism. But that stuff that was in the news, the bad ways people treat each other on Black Friday...awful. Yet I know there are also courteous people and normal people. I just get seriously depressed by people being so violent and insane and grabby and acquisitive during a time that is meant to be all about joy and love and peace.

But to prove that I'm an American consumer, I now present you with our Christmas list! Ha ha ha. No, really, people ask me and I never can figure out what everyone wants. So I think about it and post a big long explanation of everything that might be good, and then that helps me know how to answer those questions and also figure out what *we* should get the boys! So here it is.

1. books, books, books! We love Usborne books, any title really, although you can find some suggestions on my Amazon wish list. Also of note, Nathan loves horses and J would love to get audio CDs of any of the ones we've loved from the library so far: The Magician's Elephant, Odd and the Frost Giants, Nurk, The Cricket in Times Square, Charlotte's Web....
Nathan could use a few more Sandra Boynton board books, and I'm sure there are a million other awesome books we've yet to discover with him. He's also a big music kid, so some cool music cds might be great for him. (True story: tonight he was singing MMMbop. No, this is not a common song in our house. I was singing it earlier, thanks to some other high school song I heard, and he just picked it up. Hilarious.)
We can always use more farm resource books, and we could use a general homeschool resource book (also on the list already, I think).

2. Legos: J is allowed to get Lego "Kingdom" legos only--or generic, non-branded legos. We can't deal with a million different Lego "sets" to collect, we just don't have room in our house, so we've allowed him one set. Nathan would also love to get some Legos for kids his age or slightly older--he always wants to be like brother!

3. Experience gifts. J would ADORE a magazine subscription, for example, NatGeoKids, because not only would he have an awesome magazine to read once a month (or however often), he would GET HIS OWN MAIL every month!
He also love love LOVED going to the movies for the first time ever this summer. And Ben and I never get to go to the movies...so maybe a movie pass or movie tickets or however that would work out?

4. J needs his own cd/tape player, as he is always having to borrow ours for the above-mentioned audio CDs. They are truly great because he doesn't always have to wait for us to be available for the looooooooong books he wants to read! Also, Ben could use one of those little travel alarm clocks or something, that could fit by where he sleeps and also not take up too much space, and we could permanently relocate our other one.

5. Nathan would love to get his own kiddie desk. I'm ambivalent about the space it would take up--I guess it would depend on the desk. He's also really hoping for a fancy kid chair or couch, but a bean bag chair or foldout couch would also rock his world. (Okay, he just wants kid-sized stuff, he doesn't really care about quality...but I sure don't want everything branded! Shocker.)
Nay also would really get into a set of playsilks (link included here in case you don't know what that is).

6. We'd love a family globe! I'm guessing that would be James' gift. He is pretty fascinated by the globe at the library...but I can't promise the rest of us won't use it as well! (Wait...multipurpose...Best Kind of Gift!)

7. J would love his own cookbook. We found this one by Nicola Graimes that he loves and maybe that would help cut down on the fussing at dinner time. Probably not but it's a nice thought, and a seriously useful gift.

8. You guys, don't forget art supplies! These boys are so in love with drawing and coloring. I have never seen a 1-year-old love to color as much as Nathan does right now. We have plenty of coloring books, but we'd love sketch pads, or cool and interesting crayons/colored pencils/markers (there are some interesting textures out there, for example), or different kinds of paints, (we definitely need new paintbrushes! and new playdoh!), or those colorsafe coloring kit things are cool...the sky's the limit. They would love it all.

9. Both boys love dress-up, so this set of safe and natural face pencils would be awesome, as would any dress-up outfits that do not involve sports or branded superheroes (you know, a fireman outfit, a wizard outfit, a cool knight's helmet, etc.).

10. Video-wise, we've found that Backyardigans and Magic School Bus are pretty awesome. We also don't have Toy Story 1 or 2 on dvd and wish we did. For the grown-ups, we still don't own Harry Potter #5, 6, or 7 v. 1 and 2.

11. Grown-up ideas include a big cooler, good bookends, a hot glue gun, a shoe rack, and dish towels. Clothes-wise, we all need everything! But really...belts, shirts, sweaters, pants, shoes, socks...the kids both will need new boots at some point (Nathan has J's old wintery boots but not boots that are good with The Wetness, aka rainboots or muck boots). Board games or group games are always popular. A few we don't have but would like are: Clue, Fjords, Scattergories, MadLibs books, Sorry!, Scrabble, Jenga.

12. And if you knew how much crap we're going to have to buy, you'd know how much we'd love a gift card. In the fairly near future we'll need a new vacuum, new washer and dryer most likely, at least one more large stainless steel cooking pot or some other kind of cooking STUFF for our family with rapidly-growing appetites, all the aforementioned clothes...and of course the infamously expensive heating and cooling unit we'll have to buy next spring so we can make it through the summer, although we pray next summer won't be as record-breaking as this past summer...

That is all. Thanks again for being here and know that we love you no matter what you do or do not get us! Good night~