Making room for new toys-Christmas is here next week-Tree is up!

So I told Devin last week that he needed to make a pile on the coffee table in the playroom of toys that we can get rid of. He told me that we cannot give them away, that we need to have a yard sale like in Toy Story. He is one smart cookie. He said that he can give a new home to the toys that way. He started to slowly walk through our toy room and was handing me Riley's toys. First her dolly, then her teapot and so on. I reminded him that we are getting rid of his old toys and that Mommy will take care of the baby stuff. He actually did surprisingly well and filled up the coffee table and spilled over to the couch.

I started to take pictures of the stuff today to list on Craigslist and he asked when the yard sale was going to be. I told him I was going to do it online and he said, "Oh cool, will the kids come over and play with me when they pick them up?" I told him most likely Mommys and Daddys will get them as surprises for their kids for Christmas and he proceeded to ask me if I was going to a lady's house this week to get him a surprise.  I listed about 35ish toys and have had numerous emails and people already coming over today to get them.  Devin has helped me wiped them down and separate them into bags with who is buying what. I am proud that he is not putting up a fight, but he does remind me that Christmas is next week and he "Bets he will be getting a toy from Santa, maybe a truck (with huge grin)" Good thing we bought him that truck back in the summer time.

I think this will be a yearly tradition. In November/early December we can have them go through the room and whatever they do not play with we can sell or donate. That will give the kids a feeling of sharing with the unknown and generosity. He is still begging for a cement truck (Cookie (gmom) got it), the Toy Story 3 landfill (Cathy (gmom) got it) and a log truck (Santa). He reminds me about every other day about those three things. I cannot wait to see his face when he actually opens them up.

Tree got decorated Friday night. We bought the tree from a empty lot which is sadly the norm in Las Vegas. They bring trees in from Oregon and we walk around the make shift tree lot. We picked out a 9 ft noble fir and it is beautiful. They (not openly) charged $4 to net the tree to bring it home after we shelled out $110 for our tree. Talk about a crock! I complained to the lady and she said its a corporate thing. I mean come on, it costs a whole 25 cents of net to go around the tree and we are not to tip the guy who tied it to the car! I should really look into the Christmas tree sale business next year. Yeash.  There is no scent to it anymore so I have been burning a balsam candle to get that Christmasy feel in the house. Devin LOVED decorating it and Riley LOVES undecorating it. So far in the past 4 days I have only had to super glue 3 ornaments. Not too bad :)