*I received products from Celebrations Party, Gifts, and Toys to facilitate my review. All thoughts are 100% honest and my own.
From November through January is a busy time in our house with holiday excitement. Having the holidays within weeks of each other has the kids nearly bouncing off the walls. Adding to the holiday excitement, we have all four of our kid’s birthdays within days of Christmas! Here’s the flow of what our holiday season looks like. First, we have Thanksgiving, which allows us to ease into the holiday season. Then a week before Christmas we have Maddie’s birthday. Nine days after after Maddie’s birthday we celebrate Christmas. A week after Christmas, is New Year’s Eve and Timmy’s birthday is six days after New Years. A week later we celebrate our twin’s, Naomi and Titus, birthday. Phew!
As you can imagine this time of year can literally be non-stop gifts and presents as we celebrate both Christmas and birthdays. Mark and I strive to keep our house from what we call knick knack toys. We want the toys in our house to encourage learning, promote creativity, imagination, and allow our kids to pursue their passions.
Along with purposeful gifts we want to make sure we are supporting our local businesses. I was thrilled and excited when I discovered that Celebrations Party, Gifts, & Toys allowed us to stick to our convictions about shopping local and to our theories of gift giving to our kiddos!
Celebrations Party, Gifts, & Toys carries a wide range of Melissa & Doug toys. Which, I have always loved! These toys encourage exploration, creativity, and are loaded with fun! Each present our kids requested was as unique as each of our kids.
Maddie chose a Dust, Sweep, Mop Kit. I asked her a few times if she was sure that was what she wanted as a gift and she reassured me it was. I certainly wasn’t going to argue!
Naomi requested a Pop Star outfit. She walks around the house singing, dancing, and performing for us. I found the absolutely perfect outfit for her!
Titus wanted a harmonica and building set. He loves music and wants to play the harmonica, piano, and guitar. I had no idea Celebrations would have exactly what was on his radar!
I was thrilled with my find for Timothy. When each of my older kids where born, I bought them a soft blankie and soft, stuffed bunny to love on. I found Timmy the perfect lovey!
This Friday and Saturday, November 25th and 26th, Celebrations Party, Gifts & Toys will be having Black Friday Specials. These are Black Friday Specials behind which I can stand . I am excited to stroll down Broadway with my kids as I used to do with my mom, creating memories and supporting local business at the same time!
Thx Robin for the wonderful blog post. More importantly, I absolutely love the pictures of your sweet kids enjoying the items they picked out. Those photos are priceless. — tami
Tami, Thank you for the kind words. I’m thrilled you liked both the article and the pictures. Naomi is still in love with her popstar costume!
How wonderful that you could find these fitting gifts right there in Albert Lea. Looks like you have a wonderful helper in Maddie.
Maddie is an amazing helper! She’s my right hand gal! Celebration’s is awesome!
I can’t wait to stop in here! And I *love* Omi’s outfit! It is so her 🙂