The Four Gift Rule

I saw this on Pinterest a few months ago and thought "hey, we already do this!"

I hate excessive gift giving and buying.  I also happen to hate clutter which is what is created when you have too much "stuff".  The girls will be receiving gifts following this rule for their birthdays and Christmas this year.

I've already started thinking about what to get Annika for her birthday.  Originally I was going to get her a baby doll since she loves my old American Girl doll but it's kind of large.  Her cousin actually let her have one of her smaller baby dolls last weekend so that worked out nicely.  Another toy she was a huge fan of that belongs to her other cousin was the Woody doll from Toy Story.  As of right now that's on Josh's and my list to get her as the 1 thing they want.

Annabel is harder.  I'm thinking about getting a few toys from Ikea to split between the girls for Annabel's birthday (only 3 days before Christmas) and Christmas.  They have a lot of plush play things, like veggies (we used to have the set but our dog, Bo, thought they were real veggies and ate some of them...), desserts, and a little animal farm.  So plush toys from Ikea will be the 1 thing they want for Annabel's birthday and both girls for Christmas.

For the 1 thing they need I will probably do that in their stockings for Christmas Eve.  Our Christmas Eve tradition with Annika had been to open Christmas pajamas and order pizza to be delivered.  We might splurge and do this again this year because it was so much fun last year (and easy since we had a 3 day old at the time!).  This also fits into the 1 thing they wear.  I don't typically give Annika gifts of clothing because I like to buy a year ahead of time when things go on clearance at my favorite sites to shop on, Gymboree, Children's Place and Old Navy.  They're all kind of pricey if you buy at full price but the other day I got 5 pairs of shorts and 8 shirts for Annika next year (all size 4T) from Children's Place.

1 thing to read I always do.  I love buying new books for Annika and Annabel is starting to enjoy books now too.  I'll probably get them 2 books each just so they have a few things to open but not too many.