On the twelfth day...

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelve trash bags going, eleven carols singing, ten folks a'calling, nine timeouts standing, eight whiffs o'gas, seven 'ssemblies a-swayin', six parties waiting, fiiiiiive rubber bouggies, four winds a'whipping, three trips to church, two whiny kids and a house outside the city.

Does it amaze anyone else how much trash we create in preparation for Christmas day? There are wrappings and packaging and cooking messes and just an amazing amount of junk! Our trash man came Friday and we have a 90-some odd gallon curbside can nearly full, a 40 gallon can with a sack of trash already in it, and 4 black trash bags of paper and packaging in the garage already. It's nuts! However, I am trying to do my part...we've been conserving water here in Hotlanta and the 13 surrounding counties as well as having our vehicles emissions tested to help the air quality...so, why not hug a tree at Christmas, too. What the heck. I've decided that Santa does not wrap presents...yes, go ahead and gasp now...okay, ready to proceed? Yeah, you know you hate wrapping all those presents and some just require too much effort anyhow (because it is RARE for a child's toy to be packaged in a perfect little box) just to be torn asunder come the blessed morning after you've been up until almost sunrise only to have a fidget wander in your room 10 minutes after you fall asleep to ask if Santa has come yet and drag you from your warm cozy bed. So, Santa is not wrapping gifts, the stockings will be filled to the gills with the little stuff, and even our presents are wrapped in pre-used gift bags...the only thing new is the tissue paper and I even know folks that reuse that, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Santa is also pre-assembling most gifts. I do not want to spend all day Christmas screwing/unscrewing tiny screws, finding the screwdriver, losing the screwdriver only to have to find it again under all the mess. Plus, have you noticed how insanely packaged things are now...I remember when I was a kid that it did not require much effort to open a Barbie...OMG, now, it requires an engineering degree to remove Barbie from the box without striping her "skin" or cutting her hair or dislocating her shoulder. YIKES.

So, I'm thankful to have been blessed so abundantly to be able to rant about trash, to have a trash man who takes it all away, to be able to try to teach my kids to conserve what they can thus attempting to begin teaching them how to be good stewards of all that will be entrusted to them, and to "learn 'em" how to appreciate it all as blessing from their Daddy. I'm a blessed mommy who will have to smile tonight as I drink my 10th cup of coffee and rub my 10th rub of vicks under my drippy nose, yes, I'll just have to smile. =) Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.