Up Up, The Blog

"share your toys" by john w. golden on etsy. we have this print. i think you probably should, too.

this year i'm starting a new tradition with the kids. i'm going to have each of them (perhaps with a little bit of my help) choose some of their toys to donate. since evan's three, he'll get to choose three. emily will choose one since she's alllllmost one. and then we'll take them and drop them off somewhere.

and then we'll go shopping together and each kid will get to choose one (moderately priced) brand new toy to give to the kids at the hospital (the idea that kids are at the hospital and can't go home for christmas almost broke evan's poor, sweet little heart yesterday morning over breakfast).

i really like the idea of starting new traditions with my budding little family, and i particularly like this one. (it's nice to do nice, but man oh man do i also really love the idea of purging even a little bit of stuff before christmas brings in new stuff to crowd the toy bins.) evan is a little skeptical about the choosing three of his toys part, i think because he's afraid he's going to have to give away three of his mostfavoriteever toys. it's like he doesn't even realize how many ihaven'tplayedwiththisinmonthsandidon'tcare toys he actually has. i bet once we start looking through things together, he'll find more than three things he can bear to part with.