Packing Christmas Away

After 19 Christmas celebrations together, CrazyMom and I did something different. We purged and packed the decorations rather than simply putting them away.

Lord willing, we will be celebrating Christmas next year in Kenya. To prepare for this, we gathered up all of our Christmas decorations from around the house and laid them out on the table and kitchen counters. The nine of us stood around and decided what to get rid of, what to put into long-term storage, and what we would take with us to Kenya.

The special Christmas box that will go to Kenya with us.

We started the process with about 10 boxes of stuff. Way too much for any home, to be sure, but there has never been any real motivation to purge. We got rid of half of the stuff and ended up with four boxes for long-term storage and one precious box to take with us.

I was really proud of the kids and how willing they were to throw things out. As you can imagine, with 9 people in the family somebody wants just about every item. Yet, people willingly parted with lots of decorations. When the sentimental ties were strong, however, we found a place for the item in a box that will still be a part of our family.

There will be many more good-byes in the coming months and hopefully they will go as well as today.

By the way, if anybody is looking to acquire some Christmas decorations . . .