Dreams vs Reality
I’m sure many moms have been through the experience I had, but in case you didn’t here’s the low down.
Christmas is imminent and in the spirit of trying to create a magical Christmas you think it would be a GREAT idea to take your three children to a toy shop so that they can go through all of the toys and choose their top 3 favourite things. Which they do – with a quiet excitement and wonder. They pose beautifully in the pictures while holding their favourite toys so that you can send it to *cough* Santa (so he can remember which things they liked the most) and the process lasts no longer than 20 minutes. A literal pop in and out if you know what I mean. At home, you then sit your children down with a glass of milk and homemade Christmas cookies while you help them write their letters to Santa. They take these letters seriously and put a great of effort and care into writing them and decorating them. They laugh together as they think of all the things that they are going to do with their new toys.
But parenting has taught me nothing if it hasn’t rubbed in the fact that it will NEVER go to plan. In fact the lovely moments are the unplanned ones. A few snippets from my reality.
We chose an afternoon to visit the toy shop on the day that we were returning from our time away in Paternoster. The littlest had fallen asleep in the car and was now full of beans but lost his ears along the way. We arrived at Toy Kingdom in Canal Walk only to find that all the instructions that I had been drilling into them for the last half hour were long since forgotten. Only 3? Can’t buy them now? What do you mean? WE WANT ALL THE THINGS NOW! Eventually we found some common ground and instead of taking pictures with their top 5 things (to whittle down later) we now photographed basically every toy in the store – granted, there is just so many awesome things there it’s hard to make these kinds of choices, especially when you’re 5.
On another day we sat empty handed except with the pencils that we scrounged from around the house and proceeded to try and write our letters to Santa. OH MY WORD. Tantrum after tantrum after tantrum. I ended up leaving the table to go and hide in my room, only to have the tantruming child follow me with their high pitched wailing. No escape am I right? We did get it done though, many tears and freak outs later.
We didn’t actually get around to posting them, but we’ll knock that one off the list next year.
But that’s life with kids hey. It never quite goes how you want it to – sometimes it’s way better and sometimes it’s a heck of a lot worse.
The important thing to remember is that they will hopefully not be scarred by these moments, but instead look back and cherish them. Maybe even pass the memories onto their kids.
So we made our list and we checked it twice, I’m sure they were more naughty than nice (while doing this anyway) and Santa Clause will still be coming to our town and here’s what he’s bringing:
Kyla asked for:
A MAUI Cookie Board Skate Board – in pink of course
Riya asked for:
Knox asked for:
A MAUI Cookie Board Skateboard (In blue)
The overwhelming winner was the MAUI Skateboard that you can find at Toy Kingdom for R399.95 – if Riya could have had a 4th choice this would have been it. So we’re giving you a chance to win one for the special kid in your life this Christmas and unlike us, you can take all the credit instead of Santa. 🙂
Just enter through the Rafflecopter widget below.
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40 comments
Our Letters To Santa (And YOUR Chance to WIN with Toy Kingdom) https://t.co/Wbmv5ZhAY9
Would love a blue one
Our Letters To Santa (And YOUR Chance to WIN with Toy Kingdom) https://t.co/LJm9FqofVy via @cindyalfino
Blue!
Oh…..Emily wants a pink one
RT @CindyAlfino: Our Letters To Santa (And YOUR Chance to WIN with Toy Kingdom) https://t.co/Wbmv5ZhAY9
It’d be the blue one for us.
Hi Cindy, just entered the competition but had a couple of queries. I couldn’t type into the comment block, so on the unlikely chance of winning, Adam loves green. Also, I typed the wrong twitter handle, it should be jansenbl, but couldn’t go back and change it. Lastly, when I tried to tweet about the competition, the post that came up was one about mamma magic. It’s been one of those mornings…
Hey Bronwyn – so sorry that tweet about the mamamagic was my mistake – i’ve fixed it now 🙂
Pink!
kNOX TOLD ME LAST NIGHT HE WAS GOING TO BUY ME A SPIDERMAN SUIT FOR CHRISTMAS – A BIG ONE THAT WOULD FIT ME. SO PRECIOUS.
I would love a pink one!
Definitely yellow
Would love to win one! I have three lists next to my bed , each starting with “Electronic kitty/puppy” followed by a huge list of codes. Lego set codes…. will log about it
And a blue one please
Green would be fabulous 🙂
Would love a Pink one 🙂 Fingers crossed.
Aww man, we love Toy Kingdom too! We always get suckered in by the Lego though – sooo much cool! The boards look like fun though – I know mate would love a red one 🙂
PINK… always pinik
Blue!!
Blue Skateboard.
Well done on the letters to Father Christmas you are definitely braver than I am. We are also a family of 5 with 3 kids under the age of 6, it gets crazy, even the tree decorating becomes a wailing, screaming, crying etc match and that’s just me LORL
I totally love the holidays and Christmas and Easter are my all time favourites, pressies and chocolate, nothing better right.
So we do go all out and try to keep the precious magic alive, without losing the true meaning behind it.
I love the honesty of your blog and I look forward to the emails letting me know a new one has been posted.
Have a Blessed holiday.
Great way to find out what the kids want for Christmas and for mom/dad to remember.
Going to enter the competition now. Would like a blue one.
A green cookie board would be amazing!
Yellow please ?
Green or blue… depending on his mood
Those boards look.awesome,.esp for my newbie 5 yr old skaterboy (blue)
A green board please.
A pink one would be nice for my daughter
Our Letters To Santa (And YOUR Chance to WIN with Toy Kingdom) https://t.co/PpMj6j79eN via @cindyalfino
Holding thumbs for a green one
My Lily would LOVE a pink one!
My little toddler would love this! Any colour and she would be super stoked!
Would love a blue one
Would love a green one 🙂 please
Green please!
A yellow one please
I would love a yellow one for my daughter
I tried to comment via facebook. I know a little man who would love a blue one.
My boys would love a green or blue one ?
Would love the pink one please