We just dropped a couple of hundred bucks on the kids’ Christmas. I spent months trying to come up with a list of things I think they’d like to play with for the coming year. I put together an Amazon list for the grandparents every year, so that they don’t have to guess and make the embarrassing mistake of bestowing a Bratz doll onto my preschooler and watch me throw it into the fireplace. It’s generally just better this way.

We don’t usually buy a lot of toys during the year, except birthdays, so Christmas time is special. It’s also a whole lot of fun to pick out presents for little kids. I watch them in their play throughout the months leading up to the holidays to see what they’re into. I don’t buy into the belief that I have to get my kids the things that are incredibly trendy. The latest educational toy is usually not as fun as the box it came in. Really, it’s all just a ploy for us to use up as many batteries as possible, this whole trend toward buying electronic toys. Well, except possibly for Zizzle Zoundz , which might be the coolest toy ever. There are other exceptions, but on the whole, toys that use a lot of batteries are fun for awhile, until the batteries die. And then they sit around in a box awaiting reincarnation. I’d much rather see my kids using their imagination, to be honest.

Of course, I’m looking forward to their shrieks of joy at the latest battery-run toys that either Santa or the grandparents are bringing. There will be a train for Laurel that takes more battery power to run for four hours than a small village in South America consumes in a year. I think each train takes 6 batteries, and the controllers take 4?

But I know that the toys they will play with throughout the year will be the markers, the pads of paper, the skates, the puppies in their carriers. I know that when the batteries die and go to battery heaven, the kids will gravitate toward the toys they don’t have to worry about breaking or recharging, the toys that live on regardless of power source.

Today, my almost-three year old and my 4 1/2 year old are playing with a basket of rocks and two very worn out beanie baby puppies. Apparently, Friggly Puppy and Soft Puppy are WonderPets , and they are saving the rocks, who were having a rock party when they started falling over a cliff! The cliff being the arm of the futon. Thunk. Thunk thunk thunk thunk “I’ll save you, Mr. Rock!”

Perhaps I should return all these hundreds of dollars in toys and just simply get them some sticks and dirt to facilitate their play? Hmmmm.

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