Before the dust has even settled from back to school shopping, it seems the holiday preseason begins. Stores and Brands bombarding us with holiday advertisements through e-mail, online ads, physical mailers along with every flat surface they can put an ad on.
I have lost count of how many holiday promotions, catalogs and toy books we have received through the mail, half of them not even addressed to us(but who we assume are previous residents). It is hard to keep track of which brands have the hottest toy of the season (as they so claim) and why we should care.
For a season that is supposed to focus on family and values, it is easy to get lost in the holiday shopping excitement the latest deal, promotion, model, sale or whatever.
I often try to remind family and friends through social media not to go overboard especially on our account this time every year. This year I reshared “Christmas time rules” post I saw going around because it summed up my feelings so nicely.
It is important to remind ourselves about what the holiday truly means to us. We can show people we care without going overboard or overextending ourselves.
While Leo enjoys looking through the Store Toy Books and Catalogs that come in the mail. I am thankful that he doesn’t get too excited about all the holiday hype jumping on each new “hottest toy” bandwagon. Leo knows what he likes, and if you follow him on Instagram, it is pretty easy to pick up on the themes (Elephants, Nintendo, Lego, etc.).
Last week when we were setting a goal for him to work towards he picked Go Diego Go: Safari Adventure for the DS. A game he lost several weeks back and that we weren’t able to find (not the first game to go missing, DS games are so small). We have looked for it in the past, but none of the local stores carry it new, so we are forced to check in with used channels like Game Stop and Disc Replay.
After Leo hit his benchmarks for his goal, we turned it into an adventure(Dad likes to do this whenever he can get Leo out of the house). Traveling our regular route at the local Mall finally stopping at Game Stop to follow up on our quest for a used copy of Go Diego Go: Safari Adventure. Leo being a bit anxious in social situations willing to push through and ask the Game Stop Associate if they have it a DS copy in stock.
We were in luck! While the mall location did not have it, we learned that the west side location did and they could put it on hold for us. While the adventure turned into a chain quest, we were able to pick it up on our way home resulting in several hours of Diego African Elephant Safari fun all for the price of an afternoon adventure and $2.99!
Do your best to tune out all the advertisement and focus on what matters! Some of my most memorable gifts were homemade, used/hand-me-down items or merely setting aside an afternoon to catch up on old stories.
