Christmas

Christmas was good. This year, I really tried to focus on keeping things SANE (in regards to gifts for the boys). The sheer amount of "stuff" the boys had accumulated since moving to SC was staggering. We trashed/donated SO much 2 years ago, and all of a sudden the play room was full of totes brimming with plastic that the boys rarely played with. They would dump everything all over the floor in pursuit of one specific item, find they no longer had any room to play in, and would move base to "fort kitchen table." Then, getting them to clean up the disaster they had left behind was excruciating (for them and me) and inevitably led to time outs, and any toy I had to clean up was stashed in a closet.

It had gotten to the point that there were more toys hiding in closets then residing in the playroom. And I noticed something. The less crap that lived in the playroom, the happier the boys were to play with what was available, for longer. Go figure. The new plan is to tear through all the toys in hiding with great discrimination, and donate the bulk of it. Knowing we wanted to do that, we made sure to let inquiring relatives know that we were keeping it simple this Christmas. For the most part, it went very well! The boys got three things each from Santa (something to read, something to wear and something to play with), and then a handful of toys/books/puzzles from extended family.

Next year, I'm going to make it a point to do  more handmade gift giving (instead of the last minute amazon dash I pulled this year).

Besides all that, this year was special because Aunt Sarah brought home her special fella, and we all got to spend Christmas morning opening gifts and eating a ridiculous breakfast together. It was lovely.

And some of the awesomeness we scored for Christmas!