OVERWHELMED!

Overwhelmed is the buzz word for the weekend. Woke up 3:30am Sat. Fed Elizabeth, put everyone in the van, and headed back for Pgh. Made it home by around 12:30. Unloaded the van, unpacked suitcases and toiletry bags. Tried to organize toys somewhat. Remember, we never had time to organize Christmas gifts from our house and my mom's house before we left for Michigan, so we still had all that to do.

The Christmas tree stunk-but that's another story. So we put all children in their beds/cribs for naps while we undecorated. That pretty much took up the entire afternoon and part of the evening. We vowed to do it differently next year as about 5 ornaments got broken this year, and I ended up undecorating the entire bottom half of the tree about 3 weeks ago because the boys just couldn't leave it alone. Again, that's another story.

Threw dinner together (rice and vegetables-yum) and took Isaac with me to the grocery store. Didn't leave for the store until 6:45pm, so I didn't get home until around 8:15pm. Put Isaac to bed, again tried to organize and put away Christmas gifts some more, fed Elizabeth, showered, made it into bed around 11pm.

Made it to church this am-hooray! Came home, fed the boys lunch, then began a vast purging of toys upstairs and down. I think we ended up with at least 3 garbage bags full of old, worn, or unpopular toys to donate to Goodwill, plus some went in the trash, plus some were simply handed down to Elizabeth. Naptime came and I actually put the Cars movie in for Isaac while I prepared dinner, which took longer than I planned. After dinner I finally took out all of the Christmas gifts we brought home from my parents' house for the boys. Got almost everything out of the packaging and sorted it all out. We decided we're going to purchase another 9-compartment storage shelving thingy from Lowe's for the family room to keep the toys in order. I also kept a couple of things in the packaging to pull out at a later date for sort of a surprise new toy. Wish I would've done that with more of their gifts. Have to remember that for next year.

I ended the evening with a frigid walk outside with Maggie. It had to be done, and now that's it's over I'm glad I did it.

Now it's time to feed Elizabeth for the final time tonight, then get my shower.

This was the year of the matchbox car and all things wheels-Isaac got a total of at least 20 matchbox cars plus 4-5 bigger things on wheels. Josiah received about 15 matchbox cars in all plus at least 4-5 bigger things on wheels. Favorites? For Isaac I would have to say it's this bulldozer thingy that revs up and makes sparks. For Josiah it would be this big semi-truck with a back-ho (sp?) on it. While we are totally overwhelmed with how much stuff our children have, we are grateful to have such wonderful families who love our kids and do nice things for them for Christmas.

I haven't even gotten to Elizabeth's things yet though! Thank goodness she's not old enough to care.