Batteries Not Included...

So, it is the day after Christmas. All the presents are opened, Santa has come and gone for another year. Most of us think the work is over now. No more gifts to buy, we can start saving up again, the kids won't be whining about how they NEED to get this toy or that ipod. We take a breath or relief, we are done for the year.

Not quite. We don't have to buy anymore gifts, but now we get the joys of retuning what isn't liked, fighting the stores for refunds or store credit. Hoping that gift receipt you need didn't get thrown out with the wrapping paper shreds. Oh, speaking of wrapping paper, this is the day you wonder just WHY you bothered to wrap everything. All that careful work, to make it look perfect, is now laying in tiny shreds all over the house. The kids are playing with the boxes things came in, those expensive toys are laying forgotten under the tree.

No more baking to do, but what to do with that fruitcake your crazy aunt gives you every year. No one eats those things, why are they even made? Our fingers are blistered from opening toys for the kids. Sealed in hard plastic, twist-tied to oblivion, you need a jackhammer to bust these things open.

I can't understand this. Toy makers spend tons of money to hype up their products, then seal them in indestructible packaging. We spend hours trying to get these things out of the plastic, the kids whining at our sides, only to have them discarded five minutes later while they make robots out of the twist ties they came in.

So much left to do, take the 27 bags of trashed packaging to the curb, drag the cat out of the tree another 30 times, stop the dog from eating the play-doh the kids left to be ground into the carpet. Oh and don't forget, we still have about 10 runs to make to the store for that essential thing we need, the adapter cable we forgot, and batteries. Sure, many toys now come with batteries. But those only last 2 minutes, just long enough for you to know you will HATE that toy and it's noises, but not long enough to let the kid get bored.

Now is the time to decide, which toys get to stay and which will mysteriously 'vanish' in the next couple of days. And what was Uncle thinking when he got THAT for us? And, we love our mothers, but we don't love that purple sweater with neon glitter snowmen on it. But we wear it anyway and just try not to look in any mirrors.

We are run ragged before Christmas, we do so much, the day after should be a day of relaxation. But there is still so much to do, and that is when we wish that life didn't come with batteries not included....