Talk to the Hand Turkeys

I still have papers to grade and children to give an after-school snack to and two more classes tonight to teach, not to mention meals to prep and a house to clean and other miscellaneous nonsense to look after, but my biggest accomplishment today so far has been Christmas shopping at the Wonderlab. I always buy from them during this week every year, when they double the member discount in their gift shop. And thus I am now the proud owner of two large bouncy balls full of glitter and snowglobe stuff (for little stockings), two small bouncy balls full of glitter and snowglobe stuff (for a future holiday--Easter, perhaps?), a farm magnet playset and a horse show magnet playset (for little stockings), a dinosaur magnet playset and an ocean magnet playset (for the next plane trip, whenever that may be), and a magnet playset of tangram mosaic tiles (to be set exactly between little stockings for sharing, because it was expensive).

Combined with the summer sale at Learning Treasures, which provided my secret stash of miniature chalkboards, dot painters, and blank books; the local comic book shop, where I bought a few Owly comic books; a friend's Usborne book party, where I bought a couple of sticker books; the Chronicle book summer sale, at which I bought a couple of very nice puzzles; and Daiso, where I bought some Japanese magnets and other tchotchkes, the little-girl present closet is full. I pull from that closet for holidays, long trips, and anytime a little girl has to go to the emergency room. We're still on the look-out for a full-size electric piano keyboard (suitable for piano lessons) for both girls and a Willow-sized bicycle for Willow, but those big-ticket items will have to wait until fate thrusts them, second-hand and reasonably-priced, into our path.

To add to the festivity of the secret shopping day (after spending the morning at the Wonderlab with the girls, I dropped them off at school and then went back to the Wonderlab to shop, mwa-ha-ha!), I encouraged the girls to make hand turkeys this morning while I drank coffee and read the newspaper.

Willow's turkey

Sydney's turkey

I scanned these, cropped them to 4"x5", and I'm going to print them and use them to make Thanksgiving cards for the girls to send to some friends and family this weekend. I keep a sort of list, so wherever they get bored and are finished scrawling "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" and their name at will be where they pick up with handmade Christmas cards, and wherever they get bored at with Christmas cards will be where we pick up with Valentines, and if you don't make it by Valentine's Day, you basically have to wait until next winter for a handmade card.

In other news, check out my awesome little cousin. He's a tuba playa in a marching band, an art form that I don't exactly get. It's a hold-out from the Civil War, I think, when formation fighting was incredibly important, and has simply been translated, through the centuries, into formation musical instrument-playing:
The flag corps and the liturgical dancers I can't integrate at all into my theory.