Of Christmas presents and politics

My kids love Lego.

I love Lego too. Except when walking through the living room in the dark and 'finding' a piece with the bottom of my foot. That, I don't love so much. So a couple of years ago, I decided to get a Lego table for the girls for Christmas. That way they could play to their hearts' content and not have to put everything away at the end of the day, and yet the tender soles of my feet would remain unscathed.

Then I started pricing Lego tables. They were ridiculously expensive. Like $120 or more. I figured I could do better for less. And I did.

Take 1 Lack side table from IKEA ($14.99):

Add 4 Lego base plates ($7.99 each):


Align base plates carefully* and stick down on table surface with plastic-friendly adhesive ($2.99). Allow to dry.

Add 2 buckets of Lego pieces ($10.00 each on sale):

And you have a great Lego table and almost 1000 pieces of Lego, for around $70.

Not puncturing the bottom of your foot and saying words the kids don't need to hear: priceless.

(*There is a trick that you need to know. First, the plates don't butt up against each other, or the spacing will be off. You need to attach the base plates to each other with Lego (a 4-bump brick at the centre, and a couple of bricks down each line gap in order to get the spacing right) before sticking the base plates down, so that blocks will be able to be attached over the joins.)

It's a great gift, and one my kids are still playing with three Christmasses later:



When I asked what was going on in the above scenario, I was told, "The penguin is being too bossy and the reindeer don't want to do what he says anymore. They want to do stuff their own way for Christmas and they don't want the penguin being the boss of everyone, so they are talking to each other."

Does that sound familiar to anyone? Anyone? Stephen Harper?

(And yes, I do discuss politics with my kids. I guess they take in more than they let on.)

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Just a reminder, this is the last week to vote for Party of Three in the best family blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards. Voting can be done here.

Also making the finals are my good friend XUP who's up for best new blog (go and check her out, her posts are funny, incisive and interesting), and fellow Ottawa bloggers Zoom (best local blog, best activities blog, best personal blog), Watawa Life (best photo/art blog), and Salted Lithium (best health blog).