be my niece's favourite aunt

I took Christine shopping for her parents’ Christmas presents last weekend. Before we left, we had a talk about why we were going and what we were going to do. And what we weren’t going to do—buy stuff for ourselves. We also set our budget.

Although there was a little whining in the bookstore when I wouldn’t get her a book (she is 5, after all—whining is part of the deal) she was great. Most interesting was how she reacted to the budget. Whenever I told her something she picked out was more than $25, she went right on to the next thing.

We got some great presents and had a nice time.

I took Christine to the zoo by myself last week. It was my first solo outing with her. She’s five, but my brother and sister-in-law have her so over-scheduled it’s hard to find time to spend with her.

Anyway, it went great. She had a good time, so I had a good time. Plus, she behaves a lot better when her parents aren’t around—almost no whining!

I’d like to do something like this every month if I can.