neither of my kids were into legos when they were little. many of my friends had huge tuppers of legos that they tried to organize and store efficiently, but mostly i heard about how PAINFUL it was it step on an errant one, especially in bare feet. so i was not unhappy about my children’s disinterest in these small, sharp blocks.
at some point when theo was in high school, lego began releasing sets that built an orchid or an adida’s sneaker or a famous building. THEN he became very interested in them. in fact, all of his best friends were into them too (which made birthday presents for these boys super easy.) as a big kid, legos became a relaxing, meditative project that theo liked to do when he wanted a break.
we went to paris over winter break in 2022. of course we visited the louvre and waited in an absolutely ridiculous line to see the mona lisa. there were throngs of people there and we just got a passing glimpse of her as we were pushed along with the crowd. understandably, the kids were disappointed. so i was just beside myself when i found a lego mona lisa at costco (i LOVE costco!) a couple of years later. i gave her to theo for hanukkah and he promptly put her together. we found her so lovely that we hung her up and now we can spend as much time with her as we wish!
(there’s the tiny mona at the louvre with a bazillion tourists around her.)
(here she is on our wall at home)
a year or so later, i saw van gogh’s sunflowers in lego at costco (you NEVER know what treasures you will find there!) i held off that day because i was in a hurry and i wanted to make sure i had time for my costco hotdog. i mentioned how i had been thinking about it to one of my dearest mahjies and a few days later it arrived in the mail - a SUPER thoughtful housewarming gift from my boulder mahjong group. those sunflowers were close to my heart because when we lived in amsterdam we frequently popped into the van gogh museum on a rainy sunday. i have so many memories of theo running around there (i’m not sure he was REALLY supposed to do that but the dutchies are very tolerant and sweet with kids - the netherlands is always one of the top three countries to make the “happiest children” list.) the sunflowers were much more complicated than the mona so the whole family got involved. we worked in shifts - i can’t imagine how someone designs these things - there were so many layers! at one point i got one or two legos off and had to take a whole chunk apart and go back in the directions about five pages. i learned that there is a special tool for disengaging them that works much better than a butter knife - my go-to tool for just about anything.) now the sunflowers are hanging in my kitchen and they make me smile everyday!
(lu and T fully focused the sunflowers… the directions were the size of a phone book!)
(we hung them in the kitchen!)
(close up - LOOK how intricate it is!)
when valentine’s day (my FAVORITE holiday!) rolled around, i found robert indiana’s lego LOVE sculpture at costco (seriously, costco is the BEST!) of course i had to get it for the kids. we each did a letter (well i actually did TWO because i am the mama!) and now we have LOVE hanging in our kitchen too!
(LOVE in the box)
(LOVE on the wall)
so if you are still looking for some fun, family friendly holiday gifts, i would high tail it over to costco and head over to the lego section! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! x0x0xx