Twin Challenge #12: Excessive Gifts

With Christmas approaching and the shopping nearly done, I am reminded once again how blessed we are and how sometimes I feel like my kids really have too much. I don't think we go overboard but I guess it's all relative. One thing I know though is that the twin factor causes us to end up with more gifts than we would have otherwise.

For example, each of the big girls has their own Christmas list. But...there are some things that say only Kaitlyn would have on her list, that if I only gave that item to Kaitlyn and not Mackenzie, then it would be not fair at all. Like last year we gave Kaitlyn a camera which she wanted badly. So we ended up giving one to Mackenzie too. And then the same thing happens with whatever's on Mackenzie's list.

Or when the girls were younger, a doll is not something you give two girls to share. They each get their own, thus we have more dolls lying around than we probably need.

Does this make sense?

Birthdays get really excessive too, just because there are two kids opening and receiving gifts instead of one. So because there are two recipients there are presents literally everywhere and it feels like Christmas all over again!

Plus we have a lot of family members that want to spoil our kids. This year we've already been through our toys twice since Thanksgiving and donated some stuff. I've decided that's the only answer is to really clear some things out to make way for what's coming in.

But yes, the gifts get quite excessive and I know that the "doubles" of gifts really compounds the problem!

I just constantly pray that my girls will be appreciative and grateful of all that they have. Sometimes I think it's hard for them to stay grounded in this entire society of excess that we live in these days.