I put most of Christmas away this afternoon. I do feel a little scroogey, we usually keep it up till after New Years. But I couldn’t take it anymore, I know I’m a bummer. My state of mind is so a reflection of the stuff on my counters, you know what I mean? I don’t know if that is a normal thing or not. John was very supportive though, especially considering he just told me how much he loved to keep it up until this weekend. I did keep out my snowmen pillows (one of my favorite Christmas things) and hot chocolate mugs, so I have a little spirit left.
I’ve come to the realization I get a little depressed on 12/26 each year because of all the stuff. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate it and feel SO blessed to have family and friends that are SO generous. It blows me away really. I just get overwhelmed. Part of it is where does all this new stuff go, the other part is there are so many people that are so without, we don’t need all this. I don’t know an easier way to say that last sentence. So I have 360 or so days left to figure out what I can do differently to make 12/26/2009 a little different.
The other factor I struggle with is how to teach gratitude to the boys through the ravage opening of all the gifts. We have been busy making thank you pictures. It actually started the other afternoon when we were going through a book that his Uncle Andy (my brother) & Aunt Erin got him. I totally recommend it, it’s an Usborne book called, “The Usborne Big Book of Playtime Activities“. It’s so fun, it has step-by-step pictures of how to draw things or create things himself and it’s really easy set up with supplies we already have in the closet. Anyways, he was turning out so many pictures from it, I decided to make them into thank yous. So he’s been telling me what to write and what drawings he wants sent to which people. I’ve been prompting him along the way with questions like “What do you like most about your present?” or “When do you like to play with it?” so he’s kinda getting the gist of what to say in a thank you note. The biggest trick is remembering during the blur of paper and ribbons who got him what.
