Me whining a lot

Imagine this post not in an annoyed tone, but more of an eye rolling laugh :D

So I think I'm officially giving up on stopping the inflow of clutter from the extended family. The problem is, in the end, I *do* think that a gift is a gift and you should say thank you and accept it (and then do what you want with it after - I have no problem giving away *my* unwanted gifts but my kids aren't interested in giving up any of their unplayed with toys, so that's hard). I don't feel comfortable laying down the law to family about what they can or cannot give to my kids. I know a lot of people do, but I just don't. I have no problem *asking* and *suggesting* but when they ignore my requests and suggestions . . . . oh well.

I finally realized it was a losing battle this past weekend at my daughter's birthday party. A month ago I mentioned to my mom that we were really trying to cut down on clutter and I had come up with a great, clutter-free gift idea if she wanted it. I told her she could get DD tickets to a play that she said she wanted to see and that I couldn't afford to take us to. I suggested to Mom that she could make up cardboard tickets and wrap them (you pick up the real ones at the box office), or buy the picture book the play was based on and wrap that. She said it was a great idea and went and bought the tickets. I *did* say that it was up to her and I wasn't *telling* her what to get, but I thought we were on the same page, what with the clutter and all. My mom's house is 100 times worse than mine ever was and she is trying to de-clutter too (or so she says). I really thought she understood, but I forgot what she's like. I forgot the reason her house is the way it is in the first place!

So we had the birthday party this weekend and guess what? First, she decided not to give the tickets for a present. She told me that since the whole family is going it's not really a present for DD, despite the fact that DD is the one who wanted to go. We're still going to the play, it's just going to be a (very expensive) random outing with Grandma instead of a birthday present. Instead she handed her a big gift bag. It's a science kit so that's got the potential to be used up and clutter-free, right? Yes, except she *also* gave her a $30 gift certificate to a local toy store so DD can pick out her own clutter. The best I can hope for is that DD will find one expensive item to use up the whole thing at once, but given the store, I'm betting it will be tons of little things instead.

So I give up. I'll do what I can, but I've accepted that my family is working against me, not with me. Given the state of all of their houses, I guess it's not a surprise that they all think stuff=love.

On a more positive note, here's the bag of yarn, embroiderly floss and crochet hooks that went out the other day :) You can't see the floss but those are the hooks (rubber banded together) in the middle there.