Wednesday 26 December 2007

bursting at the seams

So, how was your Christmas?

Ours was great. Family, friends, laughter, hugs, a great meal, wrapping paper everywhere.

And now the chaos of my house is not to be believed.

You see, I broke my own rule this year. I’ll get to it, I kept telling myself. I have plenty of time.
And so - I didn’t clean out the old toys. We didn’t make our seasonal run to Sally Ann’s, belaboured with small bags holding clean but used toys, all parts accounted for. We didn’t even get to the woman’s shelter, with baby gear and baby toys. Now, on top of all the things I had planned to give away, all the things I had grudging permission to give away…is the new layer of plastic and fabric joy.

It still sounds good, though, right? They’d be happy (and distracted) with the new things, and I could quietly clear out the old. I even rounded up boxes on the way home to start. Whistling, I came in, and stopped short at the sight.

The sight of the dinosaurs (new) happily co-habiting in Bob The Builder’s Workshop (old), and Barbie and the Princesses (new) whooping it up with One-Eyed Elephant (my God, the last time I saw that was when Cass was four!) and a couple of Weebles.

Yes, the new toys? Have now joyously met their neighbors.

And I need to build on to my house.

9 comments:

blackbird said...

I HATE when that happens.

Sarah Louise said...

weebles wobble but they don't fall down!

My dad has a joke wherein that is the punchline. Kiki knows it for sure. I imagine your house as Toy Story now. Good luck!

xo,

SL

Anonymous said...

Uh-oh... maybe give it some time before collecting the old toys.

Loth said...

Urgh! Christmas toy archaeology - I hate it! My only suggestion is to wait until the kids are elsewhere and then speed round bagging up anything that is under more than 3 layers of other stuff. Chances are that's the stuff they don't even remember they have. If your kids don't have stuff deeper than three layers, then you don't have a problem. Yet.

jAMiE said...

I'm glad you had such a wonderful time...

molly said...

The best Christmases are those with little people underfoot.... We had a quieter,but also very pleasant day. Wishing you all the best in the new year, as those little people grow, and grow, and grow!

Sarah said...

It's always good when the new toys get along with the old ones!

meggie said...

Our 'kids' still have some of their old toys! haha.

Glad you had a lovely day.

Stomper Girl said...

Happy Christmas!! I'm just impressed that USUALLY you clean the house of unwanted toys and baby stuff. At least that means you only have a one year backlog. Mine's more like 6.

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