The Quest to Clean out and Declutter.

I've been trying to purge our house of overly expired products so that they don't move with us. We were eating frozen "wedding food" for 4 years after our wedding and my mom asked me the other day if we were still eating it because I've been trying to clear the old stuff out of our freezer and cupboards. (The "back of the freezer smoothies" were quite the adventure with possible breast milk contaminated carrots... Those followed the "back of the cupboard krispies" we fed the missionaries which were quite tasty). No, we don't have any wedding food left, but there is turkey from Thanksgiving 3 or 4 years ago... I'm thinking it will end up in the garbage... and the Ramen noodles that we were told were rancid 3 years ago by a house sitter and haven't been touched since. I am running out of time to use up the 2002 salad dressings which will surely move with us.

I did have a triumph today though. The attached photos are of lotion that has followed me from Colorado, two locations in Texas, to Nebraska. I'm thinking I've had the stuff since early high school by the 01/97 expiration date. I finally ran out of the "Vani Cream" in the pickle jar and came upon this stuff. I've been especially (as Ryan calls it:) "freakish" about washing my hands 20+ times a day (I think I've always been that way though) and have to put thick lotion and socks on my hands over night (especially in the winter) or they crack and bleed.
I haven't found my next purging project yet, but it's probably the giant bag of unshelled peanuts that hasn't been touched in a year or two. I'm not sure if they're rancid, but haven't been in a hurry to find out.

Christmas Extravaganza!

We started letting Benjamin open presents a week before Christmas because we and his grandparents went overboard this year. The finger paint opened on the 23rd was a flop. It was returned to the store yesterday. (I probably wouldn't have known Benjamin was so against the finger paint had it not been opened independently. He tried to put it back in the wrapping paper and told me he needed a different present and then was really sad when I wouldn't give him one. I explained that he was a really blessed little boy to be getting so many presents and he should be grateful for what he had.) I have a recipe for homemade finger paint, so I'll try it out on him in a few months.

Benjamin really wanted Luigi and the Ferrari matchbox cars from the Disney "Cars" movie when we were at the BX. (I'm thinking we already own about $100 of matchbox "Cars". It really adds up...) I was wary of buying them after getting him so many presents, but then Ryan reminded me that the cars could be an exchange for the finger paint. We do need to start getting him things he really likes instead of things we think he would like. I was thinking we should get Benjamin a tricycle for his 3rd Birthday, but now I'm thinking he'd really like a Fisher Price camera a whole lot better.


Benjamin just made me watch the attached video ~10 times and is still begging to watch it again. Hopefully this is a teaching moment. It does make me laugh when he grumbles about not getting what he wants. He started doing that about a month ago.

New Christmas Eve Tradition

Benjamin got the "Little People Inn" this year to finish off his Little People Nativity set. We "acted out" the Nativity story using it on Christmas eve. Hopefully in the following years it will go much smoother. Benjamin kept running off with the Holy Family during it.

We had the missionaries from our congregation over for dinner. We got them Offutt AFB hats because we figured with 2 Christmases in Nebraska someone had surely already given them Husker corn cob hats.