12 Days until Christmas means that I have just enough time to knock out 12 games that I've been playing as of late, and 12 gaming recommendations that go far beyond the Candyland, Scrabble, Monopoly fair.
Flipper Felix
Generally, if I see a yellow Haba game box, I try to pick it up. The German company is synonymous with quality components for their games which are aimed squarely at the younger set. I managed to find "Flipper Felix" with a $1 price tag on it at a local Goodwill, complete and in unplayed condition. This could not have been a better deal considering that "Felix" may have single-handedly gotten the Mu into boardgames. Though "Candyland" and "Go Away Monster" have been played in our house, "Flipper Felix" has had staying power - and more importantly - focusing power, that has taught the Mu basic game mechanics such as rolling dice, counting movement spaces, rule-following, and light strategy.
"Felix" is set up with 20 colored fish hiding in the seaweed in the corners of the board, with the goal of rescuing all of the fish into the middle of the board. Circling the middle is a great big, purple fish who will gobble up any of the fish already rescued in the middle.
Players play cooperatively, attempting to rescue all of the fish together. On a turn, a player will roll the "fishie" die which will result in either a small fish or the large fish. If a small fish is rolled, the player selects which color fish to rescue from the corners of the board. Should the large fish get rolled, the player then rolls a purple numbered die to see how many spaces the big fish moves around the board. If the big fish lands on a space that has him gobbling up a fish, a fish of that color is placed from the middle of the board into the big fish's hollow belly. Some spaces will have the big fish burping up all of the fish in his belly, where they return to the corners of the board. The game ends once all of the fish have been rescued into the middle or the big fish eats 4 of the little fish.
The simple rules and action of the game keep my toddler involved in what's going on. He loves to roll the dice and falls back on the floor in an "oh no!!" fashion each time the purple fish is rolled. We have fun deciding which colored fish should be rescued, and the game has him counting pips on a die, moving the corresponding spaces, and recognizing which colors need to be placed in the big fish's belly.
The building blocks of game playing are here, and he loves setting the game up himself and working through the mechanics of it. Games can drag on a bit with bad rolls, and sometimes he decides he's had enough - but "Flipper Felix" has got him sitting down and learning how to play through a game with the core skills a little gamer needs to learn at 3 years old. It's establishing the building blocks for more to come, and it makes his nerdy dad very happy.
Santa will be bringing him Orchard this year, followed by Monza for his birthday in the summer, as we start to gradually build his capacity for more rules and more strategy. But let's hand it to Haba - no one really grows gamers like they do.
This is something I have struggled with,
literally, every year since our oldest was born. I want so much to give
into the whole myth of Santa and insist on his magical existence, but I
also recognize how much that challenges (and sometimes
contradicts) my wife's and my efforts to raise out kids with a
specific, Biblical world-view... And that the revelation of Santa's
non-existence after years of claiming him to be real can erode the truth
of God's existence in a child's mind. 
') that a photo of the four of us from the Fall just isn't very representative of how our family looks right now.