The Holiday Aftermath

It all started with Ada's birthday party on the 19th (actually with Granny's celebration of birthdays at Thanksgiving but I'll get to that next). We must not have put the "no gifts necessary" in bold enough print on the Evite. Next time, that will be the title and will be inserted in between every line in every possible location. And I'm going to strengthen the wording to "No gifts please." Or, "In lieu of gifts, please consider making a donation to one of the following:" and listing a few charities. This is the same issue I struggle with every year. We have so much when others go without. It might not be so noticeable if it wasn't compacted into about a two week time period.

Here's what I mean:

November 21st - we went to Granny's for Thanksgiving and Ada got her bounty of gifts since that's when they celebrate December birthdays.

Ada received:

• Clothes
• Dr. Seuss Books
• a wooden food set and knife to learn to chop foods
• bowling pins and a bowling ball

The 19th - we had 50 people attend Ada's birthday party. 9 kids, 1 baby and 40 adults -more of a fun adult holiday party with a play date in Ada's room, but she's still a bit young to have the party focus on her the whole time.

Even with "no gifts necessary" Ada received:

• a music CD
• a book and a donation to toys for tots in her name (nice!)
• a pop-up book
• a doll
• squishy cars
• a toy tea set made of recyclable materials
• a "My Little Pony"
• a hard hat and a dump truck
• a lunch bag, plate, bowl, and silverware
• Tinkerbell book
• play-doh with cookie-cutter shapes
• bath toys
• college fund money (yeah!)
• a dog book
• blocks
• crayons and a coloring book
• clothes
• a shopping cart full of toy food (DD gave this to her a few months early)

Via mail in between

• two books
• an ice cream truck that sings
• 10+ DVDs
• clothes

The 24th at Granny's

Ada received:

• a baby doll that makes noises
• a vacuum that talks
• They Might be Giants CD
• a dollhouse
• furniture for the dollhouse
• a talking purse complete with jumbo lipstick
• a set of cars
• a baby doll in a tub with changeable swimsuits
• a kite and 5 puzzles (we got that as our white elephant gift so technically, not Ada's)
• a ballerina puzzle
• Leapfrog books that have a tool that reads them

The 25th at Grandma Ba's

Ada received:

• Leapfrog Laptop
• baby stroller
• coloring box with crayons on one side and chalk on the other
• brown boots with fuzzy balls dangling from them
• a wooden horse
• the Pig from If you give a Pig a Pancake (Aunt Heather gave this to her the Christmas Tree Hunt weekend)
• a homemade big girl fleece blanket
• ABC fridge magnets that sing

The 25th at Great Aunt Connie's

Ada received:

• NIU Hoodie
• Gigi the giraffe - as a birthday gift
• Santa Paws book
• an ornament

The 25th at DD and Bobpa's

Ada received:

• a book read to Ada by Bobpa with Bobpa's voice recorded
• a drum set
• a guitar
• a feather boa
• a doctor's kit
• a Cubs jersey and a few clothes
• a noisemaker in her stocking
• race cars and a track
• more clothes
• a hat and gloves set

The 26th at DD and Bobpa's there were some stragglers from "Grandma" Patti

Ada received:

• If you give a Cat a Cupcake and the corresponding cat stuffed animal

Today, New Year's Eve, I find myself with about 50 thank you notes to write, a house exploding with toys and cardboard packing materials, a kitchen full of dishes, and a trash receptacle with expired cake and cupcakes from a party a week and a half ago. Not to mention about 6 full loads of laundry from all of our travels, and a crisper full of extra beer. The crisper full of beer would be nice if a) I liked beer and b) I wasn't pregnant and could drink the beer that we are assuming I liked.

On the bright side, we were able to get it all back in one trip since we upgraded to the CRV a few months back. And Ada is far from board. And I'm way beyond annoyed by all of the singing/noise making toys. SERENITY NOW!

Moral of the story: Modifications must be made before the holidays next year or I will be overrun. We only need so much stuff, have so much storage, and Ada can only play with one toy and wear one outfit at a time. Plus, where is baby #2 supposed to go?