Giving up the gift exchange

We have nine children, one son-in-law and one grandchild and....amazingly all four of the grandparents of our children.  Wow.   I also have one brother and his wife whom we have maintained some semblance of a gift exchange for....ever.    So, now that money is tight again, I have decided through discussion with my family and a few others, to give up the whole gift exchange thing this year and hopefully do weird things like play with the games we already have, have a hymn sing or something, read books that we already have, enjoy the rest of the year with less stress and just give up the guilt.   We can NOT keep up with the whole 'have a zoo membership' AND have gifts for everyone at Christmas.   That is just one example.  

I spend SOOOO much time during the year cleaning up all the junk we acquire at Christmas and birthdays that there must be a radical change.   Wouldn't I rather spend the year actually doing nice things with my family instead of chasing all this crap around?   How many dolls, toys, etc. does one family need anyway?    It may be suggested by some that a zoo membership could be the gift of the year but even that has some strings attached to it so no, money will be spent on yummy food, making things together throughout the year and just enjoying each other....hopefully (!).    

Now to return to decluttering my house of all the stuff so I don't have to take care of it anymore and I don't have to look forward to getting more stuff in the future.   Enough already!  

I is SO slow!

Dear son graduated in December.....haven't had the party yet. I am consoled by my Duluthian friends that their second born has not had a party yet either. Phew. Poor boy. We have arranged for August 20th, working around his tool craze hobby and a tool meet. I wonder if 3rd born will get a party at all at this rate. I have a couple years anyway unless he gets bored with life here in High School land. We shall see. Maybe if I have some energy I could throw it then and even if it was early, I could say I did things *right* this time. Poor kids. When Evan graduates, I think I will take him to Europe instead. Emphasis on take him and not send him.

If I am happy to get the babies diaper changed today then hmmmm.....I should remember this plan for the future and maybe I should throw Erik two parties to make up for my slowness.