Tomorrow I'll be 35.  The big 3-5.  Where the heck does time go?!  I was having a conversation today with one of my fave Bostonians (also one of my pledge sisters 13 years ago --YIKES!).  She texted me to tell me that she was wondering why her Pinterest feed was clogged with pins about potty training, and then realized what I'm currently doing with my life.  She then quipped, "I thought adulthood was going to be way more glamorous than this."  Indeed, my dear friend.  Indeed.

That all being said, I figured that since birthdays usually come with gifts, what better time than now to round up our top 5 favorite Christmas gifts for Jane and Emma this year?  

Instead of having a bunch of conversations about what the girls wanted and what they already had, I decided to streamline the process by creating an Amazon wish list for the girls.  As you already know, I am a faithful Amazon customer and one of their biggest Prime fans, so this was a no brainer for me.  I then shared the list with the Grandma Squad and our closest friends, and this hopefully helped take some of the guesswork out of Christmas shopping for Jane and Emma (something that I always really appreciated when shopping for friends' kids!).  

Here are the girls' FAVORITE gifts from this year's Christmas extravaganza!  You may notice that some of the gifts were NOT on the wish list, which just means that the girls were extra spoiled this year, which was fine with us!!

5.  Melissa & Doug Nesting/Stacking Blocks.

Emma spends a TON of time taking the nest apart and very carefully stacking all of the blocks up.  She LOVES to put the tiny little Z block all of the way at the top of the stack, which she needs help to do since the stack is taller than her.  The only caveat to this is that Jane's favorite thing to do is to come by like the tiny tornado that she is and smash all of her sister's hard work while screaming "NOOOO!!!!!!!!"  But this just gives Emma the opportunity to rebuild her masterpiece.  (We got just one set for both girls.)

4.  Melissa & Doug Let's Play House! Pots Pans Set.

Seems simple, but since Jane and Emma already LOVE their little kitchen set so much, and they also LOVE tearing into my cabinets to take out my BEAUTIFUL Calphalon pots and pans to scratch up bang on, this seemed like a natural choice.  They love to disassemble the whole tower and "make" breakfast or dinner, bringing the little wooden spoons over to Hershey and I so that we can "taste" their culinary masterpieces.  Noms. (One set for both girls.)

3.  Baby Alive Luv n' Snuggle Baby Doll.


The twincesses already had little baby dolls, so my mom went out on a limb with this one, but the girls LOVE their Baby Alives.  They carry them around, giving them bottles and putting the blankies over the babies' heads and saying, "Na-night babyyy."  I even caught Emma singing to her baby and spoon feeding her this morning!  They also love to put them in the little baby strollers that my MIL bought them over the summer and "take them for walks" which really = DRAG RACE AROUND THE HOUSE, in which case we've had a couple of baby doll casualties when the babies went flying from the strollers and unceremoniously run over by one or the other or both girls. (One for each girl.)

2.  Mega Bloks First Builders Play 'N Go Fairytale Table.



I had bought Jane and Emma some Mega Bloks from the Target Dollar Spot over the summer, so I knew that they were interested in building blocks, but was unsure just HOW interested they were.  Let me tell you something -- it only took a little nudge from this beautiful little table to get the girls engaged!  This was their big combined gift from "Santa" this year, along with a big bag of pastel colored Mega Bloks, and our friends and family bought them all kinds of accessories, like fairies on unicorns and primary colored Mega Bloks and tulip cars, and there are now FIGHTS over putting the blocks away and going to bed.  They go crazy for these beautiful little blocks! (One set for both girls.)

And the #1 gift for Christmas 2014 was....

1.  Step2 Pink Whisper Ride Buggy!!!!!