Yasmin

This year I decided to begin a tradition with Kate in adopting an angel from the Salvation Army's Angel Tree. When I was in high school a couple of my friends and I would always pick an angel from a tree either at the store or our high school and we would have the best time shopping for random little kids. Kate is old enough now to understand the concept of doing good for others so while at the mall one day doing a little Santa work, Nick and I selected a three-year-old girl from the tree named Yasmin. She needed pants and wanted a tea set. I thought Kate would be most excited to purchase gifts for a little girl about her age, so this was perfect.

I explained the concept to her, and she pretty quickly understood that we were going to buy gifts for Yasmin but what she didn't understand is why, if Yasmin's parents couldn't afford to get gifts for her, Santa didn't just bring them all? Um. So perhaps I wasn't totally prepared for that question (she asks a lot of pretty smart questions for her age) so I tried as best I could to explain that parents buy presents too, they don't all come from Santa, so we were just helping them out. She seemed satisfied with that.

We picked up a Little Mermaid Tea Set and I found several pairs of pants and a few shirts on sale for Yasmin.  Kate also decided that Yasmin needed a baby, so since we were returning her gifts to the Ridgmar Mall I suggested that Kate build Yasmin a special bear at Build-a-Bear.

She picked out a pink penguin that she named Princess and selected a colorful tutu dress. We were assisted by Daniel, who has helped Kate on a prior visit (we go to Build-a-Bear a lot) and he was a lot of fun.

Once Kate got Princess all cleaned up and dressed, she got angry when I put her in her box and then inside the gift bag for Yasmin. Apparently at some point during the stuffing process Kate forgot that this particular penguin was not for her and she wanted to take Princess home. After a small protest I told her she'd just have to tell Santa she wanted her own penguin. (Santa is tapped out kid!)