Thanksgiving/Children's Gift Exchange

I know these are a little late, but the pictures below are of the gift exchange that we had at the American Thanksgiving dinner. Samuel seemed to enjoy having a lot of children to play with. The girl to the right of him is Abby McGowan. Samuel attached himself to her and made sure that she played with him. She was a great sport about it, she even let him play with her little Polly Pockets that she received at the exchange.

There is a bit of a funny and embarrassing story that goes with this exchange. I knew who we were suppose to buy a gift for, but did not realize it was for the Thanksgiving meeting (I thought it was for one of the meetings in December). So I had not yet been out to buy the gift. I know, brilliant! So when I realized that we were suppose to have a toy, I was not so happy. We were giving a toy to a two year old named Mia. So the women got together to ponder what we could do. I came up with the solution (to forever be mocked for it). Samuel had brought a stuffed monkey that we had been saving for his jungle room. It was bought years ago when Pier One actually had cute stuffed animals (but was still brand new). So we wrapped that. Of course throughout the evening I heard, "mommy I want my monkey" . Yes, I know, horrible mommy to give away his toys! My husband is finding it funny to mock me about that, but you should see all the jungle animals that he has (and he does have another monkey). Plus, he received a wonderful hot wheels carrying case and a few hot wheels to go in it, much better than a monkey, and Sam was happy. He has finally stopped asking me for his monkey :).

Lessoned learned, go buy gifts as soon as you get the email and carry it with you just in case!!!

Enjoy!