Britt's Christmas Gift Guide

Britt was "helping" Mikey put up Christmas lights this weekend; she came running in from the garage to tell me, "Our Christmas decorations are in the attic! It's like a basement!"

She's very excited about Christmas this year. Actually, she's decided she wants a Halloween Christmas. And a Halloween birthday. Every day should be Halloween, as far as she concerned.

So, what does Britt want for Christmas? Aside from every toy advertised on TV, here are a few items she's let slip lately:

"I want wots and wots of books for Christmas! Santa's making them! He's painting and painting and painting!"

"I want some skating shoes. You get 'em at the skating shoe store."

"I want a gardening set for Christmas."
"A gardening set?"
"Uh-huh, for outside."
"What are you gonna plant?"
"Some cheese!"

Anyway, books are always a great gift. We get books from the library every week and it breaks her heart when we have to take them back. Her favorite stories feature animals, like this or this or this. Dr. Seuss is always good; she doesn't have this one or this one or this one yet.

I'm getting her the Tag Reading System, so any of the books that go along with that would be great. She got a Leapster 2 for her birthday and she already has several of the Pre-K games (Pet Pals, Creature Creator, Backyardigans and Diego). Any other Pre-K or Kindergarten-level games would be cool.

She loves stuffed animals, and comes up with the most creative names for them: Teddy the bear (her dearest friend), Parry the parrot, Rabby the rabbit, Pengwy the penguin, Giraffy the giraffe. Go for less common animals, like a llama or a rhino and you'll probably find something she doesn't have already.

She's been asking for Barbies lately. Mikey went shopping the other night and accidentally pulled one of her Christmas gifts out of the bag right in front of her. Britt was delighted with her new Ballerina Barbie and promptly named her Ballareeny. She's also asking for Peekaboo Barbies; she doesn't have any of those yet.

She could use some new bath toys. Something like this, maybe, or this. And I could use one of these.

She needs more long-sleeved tops and pants for school, but she already has more dressy outfits than she can use. She wears a size 5T and shoe size 10. She has a Hello Kitty umbrella but no raincoat or galoshes. If you go that route, go a size bigger so she can wear them next year, too.

And that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, wait -- I just remembered one more thing Britt told me she wants for Christmas.

An x-ray machine.