Daughter buys Father FarmVille Cash

One thing that surprised me last Christmas was that Little Miss 11 actually bought presents for each member of our family with her own money.   And without us knowing!

We were around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, and Little Miss 11 hands me a present.  I thought, OK, Wifey must have gone out with her to buy me a present, or perhaps Wifey bought a present for Little Miss 11 to give to me.

I quickly unwrapped it and saw a FIFA 2010 game and a FarmVille Cash Card of $10!!!  I was very happy but both Wifey and I were surprised – HOW and WHEN did she buy these?!?!?

We have started giving Little Miss 11 a bit of freedom nowadays when we go shopping, as long as she’s with Little Miss 9, has her mobile and only for short periods at a time.  I’m guessing that when we were out shopping one day, she must have sneaked into EB Games and bought these things!

As a parent, and knowing what little pocket money we give the kids (and not regularly as well), this was an extra special present as it’s a significant chunk of the total amount of money that she has.  And to get gaming stuff – very thoughtful indeed!  I started trying to think back to wonder at what age did I start buying my parents presents with my own money… hmm…  I can’t remember!

Unfortunately, the most disturbing aspect of this story for me is Little Miss 11 buying her parent virtual money with her real money.  It seems like throwing your money away…    But I was super happy in a geeky way – I plugged it into FarmVille then sat down with her to try to decide what new building or decoration I could buy with it.

But the priceless present – I will always remember the proud smile on her face when I unwrapped the gift and realised she bought it by herself with her own money.   Ahhh – definitely one of the perks of grown up kids 🙂

Boxed the Christmas tree

Well, Christmas is over for another year.   On the weekend, we gave Little Miss 9 the task to undecorate the tree.   It’s funny how both girls were madly fighting over decorating the tree when we put it up a few weeks ago, but no-one wants to take it down.

I jammed the tree back into its old box – the same tree we’ve used since Wifey and I got married – and slapped on some new gaffa tape to hold it all in before throwing it into the shed. 

Maybe I should push for a real tree for next Christmas?

On the weekend…

We finally got round to going out for Dim Sum on Saturday.  I love Dim Sum because you can get food so quickly, with people sticking food in your face even when you’re still getting comfortable on your chair!   Although you have to queue at the more crowded and popular places, I love the buzzing atmosphere at these places – the loud conversations, the loud “boss lady” or “boss man” assigning tables, scolding staff…

But one thing they should invent is some sort of traffic light or sign system on each table.   I mean, there’s different stages in a Dim Sum meal. 

First there’s the “I want food now!” phase.  I’ve been queueing for ages, waiting for a free table while taking in all the smells of yummy food.  Now that I’m seated – I want my pork bun, prawn roll, whatever, NOW!!  Maybe a nice green light would be good for this.

The second phase is the “Hold on” phase.  OK, we’ve now got WAY too much food on the table.  I begin to wonder whether we can finish it all.  The trolley girls still come around and offer us food.  But can’t they see that it would be PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to add more food to the table?  Where would we put it?   And can’t they see that we are eating our way through the food we already have?   Sometimes they even offer us dishes that we already are eating!!  Duh!!   A yellow light meaning “I’m eating, but I would like more food later, but do interrupt me if you have something yummy that isn’t already on my table” would be good for this.

The last phase is the “Stop” phase.  By now, we’ve eaten WAY too much.  We feel all gooey with oil, MSG and fried stuff.  Our fingers are dirty.  The tablecloth is a mess.  Our clothes smell of Yum Cha.  Our tummies are full.  Some lonely pieces of food are still sitting in their trays getting colder and yuckier by the second.  The thought of eating more makes us sick.  But still the trolley people come around, offering us food!  Errrr, no!!  You’ve already served us X number of dishes previously, we’ve stopped eating and look like we’re about to explode.  Don’t give us anymore food!!   Here is where we need a nice red stop light.   If anything, give us some Coke to dissolve the grease out of our mouths.

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On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at a Family Christmas Party at the Claremont Showgrounds. 

We first walked by the more teenage oriented rides that were too rough and scary for the kids, and headed straight for the pavilion which was more kiddy oriented.

Unfortunately, walking through there, the kids just looked at the bouncy castles, the kiddy ferris wheel, teacup rides, etc and didn’t want to go on any!  I was telling them, “You can go on, it’s free!  We’ve already paid for our ticket!” but I have a feeling that we’ve trained our kids so much to be “thrifty” at carnivals that they didn’t want to go on any at all!!!  Either that, or they’re in some middle age ground where they think the small rides are too childish and the big rides are too scary…  or it was just too bloody hot!

The kids did get their faces painted though, by Rosie O (http://www.rosieofacepainter.com.au/).  She also did an amazing job on wifey – so much so that it seems a few other Mums wanted to get their faces done too!

 

When to put up the Christmas tree?

Our kids have started bugging us lately – “When can we put up the Christmas tree?”

A few years ago, we had a tradition where we’d put up the Christmas tree in the first week of December. However, I think it was last year we thought that with the amount of effort to decorate it, we might as well put it up earlier – in the first week of November! It did seem a bit early, so this year we’re trying to hold out until December again.

The kids just love putting up the tree – looking at each decoration, suggesting colour schemes, hanging decorations off their ears 🙂

I can’t believe the thought that goes into the Christmas tree. We’ve recently moved, so our next question is – where do we put it? It’s nice to have it somewhere central, but it’s got to have space for presents, and access to power of course 🙂 And of course, maybe a little distant from kids’ bedrooms so that Santa can sneak in without waking anyone up.