Thank you all for the kind messages - I needed to vent about that, and I appreciate the responses.
They're spending the next few months emptying the house and getting it ready to sell, and hope to move to a condo.
I think the whole moving experience really makes one realize how much "stuff" is kept, sometimes when completely unnecessary. All throughout our moving process, my parents - especially my mom - noticed this. When you have to pack everything up in boxes, it really hits you! And their whole goal was to downsize, as you said, so we're constantly on alert for anything new coming in the house...which is hilarious when it comes to my grandma, who will send anything and everything she can think of to us. Newspaper clippings, clothing and jewelry that's been passed on, decorations, food, etc. I don't know how many times I've heard my mom tell her, "Mom! We don't need all this stuff!" or "We don't have
room for all this stuff!"
DC, I think Secret Santa is a nice idea, and it'd probably be good for us. I seem to remember someone in the family suggesting that before, so I'm not sure what happened with it - but maybe we can do that next year. If anything, I'll just give baked goods to everybody - one of my uncles has done that for years, making these wonderful trays of homemade sweets. Some of my high school friends are coming over in a few days, so I'm making their Christmas gifts somewhat similar - I got tin containers at the store, made cookies, and added candy canes and chocolate in...I should've been doing it long ago!
A Christmas Story...yes! We all watched it together - it never fails to make us laugh. A true classic.
