Out with the old and in with the new

I've been spending a lot of time trying to purge the house of unnecessary clutter. Have you ever heard the saying "a cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind"? Well let me tell you, my mind is filled to the brim with clutter right now.

Last week we had the carpets cleaned. Which means we had to empty out our play/computer/scrapbook room of all it's contents. It definitely doesn't feel good to load junk back into it when it's been all cleaned so I've been getting rid of a lot of stuff. This train set was one of the first things I decided should go. It wasn't easy because it was my idea to buy all this stuff a couple years ago for Taggart. I really thought it would be a hit...but it wasn't. He never plays with it and it takes up an awful lot of room. So I had Cooper pack it all up and organize it into a box to give away. Well, when Taggart saw what was happening he didn't react well. All of a sudden this became his favorite toy. So Cooper dumped out all of his packing efforts and built this great set up. Taggart and him had a great time playing with it.......for about 10 minutes.

So the next day it got all packed up again and ready to give away. Taggart seems to understand this time.

All of this cleaning house seems to be the perfect set-up for Christmas. Kids are writing their wish lists and Tony and I are trying to figure out the what's and who's of Christmas shopping.

With Tony's career taking a slightly different turn this year it seems to be the right time to introduce some new traditions. Things that focus a little more on the giving rather than the getting. Tonight we did this:The kids put all their names in a hat and each chose one to buy a Christmas present for, with their own money. I think at first they were a little taken aback by that idea, especially Reagan who has been saving forever to by an iPod, but once they had chosen their name they all started to get excited about it. Chatting about what they wanted and all the ideas that they had.

To be honest, I have really been feeling stressed out about Christmas drawing near - worried about what to buy without buying too much. Really wanting to show the kids what Christmas can be without the getting part. But tonight, listening to them all buzzing around about what they want to get eachother, my Christmas spirit has been restored. I might even get out the decorations this week.