A New Tradition

We all know how houses with kids in them look after present opening.  Christmas really provides the proper motivation to do what you've likely been thinking for months, "I should probably go and organize all of the toys in there so there's actually room to move."  That's what I was thinking anyway, and this year it started a new tradition for us.  A couple of people told me this year that to make room for the new toys, they have their kids go and choose some old toys to give away to kids that aren't as lucky as them.  What a great idea!  I figured this year Emily is definitely old enough to somewhat understand what that means so I asked her if she'd come and help me clear out some stuff.  She didn't even hesitate or complain, which was great!  In fact I got a, "Sure!"  She was really cute coming in and looking around for what she knew she was bored with and giving a thinking, "Hmmmm..." a couple times a minute.  She picked things rather easily, and I might have made a gentle suggestion for a couple of things to help her along. :)

Here's the loot she ended up choosing and agreeing with, plus a little bag full of old dress up stuff because she got new stuff from Grandma Karen for Christmas and couldn't possibly need to put on her OLD dress up stuff ever again.  Not bad at all!

I think the funniest part was when she was going through her stuffed animal collection.  She handed me this Blue's Clues dog and said, "I don't need this one any more, I can dance with another animal."  What??  Yeah I don't know what the thought process was on that one, but some kid out there will appreciate the fact that she has plenty of other dance partners. :)