The pressure is on – Christmas is coming! I vowed not to stress about gifts this year and I’m not. But I have started the “get ready for new stuff Christmas clean out”. Does anybody else do this? If you know what I’m referring to you know it’s when you start looking at the many toys that have accumulated throughout the year and start to panic because there’s no room for anymore! It’s then that you decide it’s time to clean out those toy bins. Well, it’s happened here, and I along with Luke (with much convincing) started cleaning out the toys. It’s amazing what accumulates in those bins!

As Luke and I started cleaning out we had a “keep” pile, a “maybe keep” pile, a “garage sale/giveaway” pile, a “junk/throwaway” pile (can you believe how many happy meal toys and 25 cent machine toys you have??!), a “broken toy” pile, and here at my house we still have a “Luke” pile and a “Gracie” pile. I know, I know- it’s been almost 3 years she’s been gone and I still have her toys. We just weren’t ready to get rid of them yet. But I think we’re ready. It was a little easier having Luke with me to do this. He would simply say “this is Gracie’s, but it’s a baby toy and if she was here she wouldn’t be playing with it anymore”. True statement. So I went with his philosophy and hesitantly put her toys in the “giveaway” pile. There were some that were very hard to let go, but it truly didn’t make sense to keep them. While Luke and I were going through the toys we had a lot of fun. We reminisced of when he or Gracie got that toy, told stories of when or how they played with that toy a while back and of course we played with every single toy. Whether it was 10 sec. or 10 minutes every toy was played with. This cleaning out process took many hours that could have been replaced with the hustle and bustle of the season but I’m so glad it wasn’t. When I look back on that day we had fun because we were doing something together. It was very hard to get rid of Gracie’s toys, but what is the toy without the child? Luke and I had fun that day because we were playing together, the toys didn’t make it fun, we did.

This Christmas take some time to watch your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, friends and all of your loved ones excitement and wonder as they open up their presents and play with them. They will remember having fun and playing with YOU more than playing with just the toy! We can attest to that. Geoff, Luke and I remember all the fun times we had playing with Gracie and her toys when she was here. We can tell those stories because we were there playing with her- moments we will cherish and remember forever. I hope you can all try to take some time to play and have fun this Christmas season, it will be a memory you will never forget.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love,
The Lawton’s

P.S.- I will tell you that we did throw a couple of little things of Gracie’s back in those toy bins so the next time we clean out we can tell our Gracie playtime stories again <3