Gift Insanity

Well, I am doing it again. Sort of. I have more projects than I will be able to complete before xmas. The stress is not in finishing them, though. The stress is that I WANT to be knitting but have this cute little side kick who thinks staying up half the night is oh so fun. Last night it actually worked out well, since she let me knit, but usually she wants actual attention while we are not sleeping. My knitting time (read that as my ME time) has been cut down to almost nothing and boy do I feel the lack of it. sigh.

In other news, I am stressing about xmas presents for the kids. I want to get Beebz a dollhouse, and have finally narrowed it down to one: Plan Toys My First Dollhouse. Understand, the narrowing down was a harrowing process fraught with stress and strife, all made more complicated by the fact that I couldn't just go LOOK at all of them side by side.

In addition to looking for new ones, I am looking on ebay, since you can get so much more bang for your buck. I love the idea of recycling toys, and getting something gently used seems much more kind to the environment. And my pocketbook. Of course, the problem with ebay is that there are all these good deals that have tons of extras, but are more than we wanted to spend. Of course, we can put away some of the furniture etc for later, but the money part still goes out now. Also, ebay is stressful. I rarely win auctions, since people are more than happy to spend more on ebay than things would cost NEW on amazon. Argh.

So that means new, right? Part of me loves the thought of getting a brand new dollhouse for her, with just one set of furniture, and letting the house evolve, getting more rooms and accessories as gifts over time. But inside me is a little kid who thinks that instant gratification is WAY more fun than accruing stuff over time. Hence the stress.

What to do? Get used that is tons of stuff at once (and more than we really want to spend) or be mature and get a little at a time?

Oh, and did I mention that we found an amazing train table on craigslist while looking for something else? We know the kids would love it, and we will buy it if we can. So should that replace the idea of the dollhouse? I mean, those are both pretty big items. hmmm. I will say that when we went to the toy store yesterday, Beebz sat and played with the dollhouses for a LONG time, but she then went to the train table and had a blast. My partner thinks she would like the train table more, but I disagree.

It is a quandary. And I have no idea what to do. I bet it would all be more clear if I had more knitting time.