O.M.Goodness. I don’t know about all of you, but I absolutely HATE and DESPISE how commercialized all off our holidays have become.

Christmas is all about presents – are you even a good parent if you don’t have half the room full of presents (read TOYS) for your kid(s)? Birthdays are just ridiculous now – completely decorating their door and bedroom for the birthday, over the top outdoor signs, huge parties (OMG…I also hate goodie bags), more presents. Hallowe’en – I mean, who doesn’t like dressing up and trick or treating for pillowcases full of candy? It’s not as bad as the others – yet. Saint Patrick’s Day used to be a religious holiday, and is now National Drinking Day – not cool people, not cool.

And now Easter is in on it all. As a kid, we would always have our Easter baskets with a book, crossword puzzle book, a kit, and some candy. As we got older, the baskets went away for one on the table full of candy for us to choose from. I don’t know when it happened, but the pre-made baskets at the stores came into vogue. I remember seeing them for the first time and just wondering “What do people do with all of that stuff?” as I saw these monstrosities.

In my family, we did baskets at home and then went to someone’s house for dinner. We would rotate between our home, Gramma’s, and my aunt’s. At dinnertime, there would always be a basket out with jelly beans, robin’s eggs, marshmallow eggs, peeps, etc. for everyone to just grab something out of. So, I have to say I was shocked to pick up Squatch from his aunt’s last Saturday after he drove down with his mother and step-father, and on the kitchen table are three ENORMOUS blue baskets, chock full of shit.

Now, some may question my use of the word shit, but that’s really what it was. MIL took it upon herself to make this absolutely ridiculous baskets for Little Man and his two cousins. On Easter, MIL said “It’s Easter Basket time!” and handed out the baskets. In addition to the blue baskets, one aunt got each kid a cartoon themed basket from Aldis, and the other gave each one 2 different chocolate bunnies.

Alright – the Aldis baskets were indeed shit. It was cheap crap and candy, so much candy. Plus, Little Man has no idea what a Spongebob is, so just a waste. The blue baskest from MIL – Oh. My. God. Toys, candy, colouring books, markers, chalk, more candy, more toys. What the hell was she thinking? I opened it, and Little Man was just overwhelmed with it all, and was more intrigued by his cousins as they opened their baskets. I decided to take his two baskets and the candy and pop them right in the SUV. Out of sight, out of mind.

Once we got back to the house that night, I left the baskets in the garage. It wasn’t until Wednesday that I remembered he had them. This is when I made the discovery of just what was in the blue basket. Let me start by saying – I do not give Little Man candy. Other than an M&M each time he uses the toilet, no candy for him. So, all of the candy he got was just a waste. I threw it in the bag of Easter candy my mother had, and brought it to the lake. My youngest brother and one of the neighbours were quite pleased to see it all.

As for the toys – Little Man has more toys than he currently needs. I’ve got a bin of cars and trucks, and a handful of outside trucks. He doesn’t need anything other than what he’s got. So the dilemma becomes – What do I do with these toys? Well, I’ve got a bag of things we have accumulated over the past 8 months since we’ve been down here; toys from goodie bags, presents, etc. These toys will be used if we have any parties to go to and need a quick gift, or maybe I’ll see if I can sell them, but I’m not on FB to use the marketplace on there.

It’s not like the in-law side doesn’t know that we don’t want or need any of this stuff. I have made countless pleas to not go overboard and buy Little Man a ton of stuff. But unfortunately, that is not how they roll. They are all about the number of gifts – it is how they show affection. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have a place to store it all, or that Little Man doesn’t like the stuff they get him, it makes them feel good.

But when I look at these holidays, going overboard in this way defeats the purpose of the holiday. Christmas is about Jesus’ birth. Easter is about Jesus’ death and resurrection. When did they become about so much commercialism and just plain old crap? When did holidays stop being about spending time with the ones you love, creating memories? I know Little Man has more fun, and is less stressed, when he just gets to be with people, and when he is playing outside. He doesn’t need anything to be happy and creative, he just needs the time and opportunity to use his imagination.

This is clearly still an ongoing battle with one side of our family. I’m not quite sure how we will get over it, or if we ever will. But in the meantime, I’m going to continue what I have already been doing – excess will get regifted, donated, or returned. If I can leave it behind, I will. And I will continue to try to educate everyone on the true meaning of the holidays – and here’s a hint: it’s not about the crap.

The only thing I made this week as 4 loaves of Irish Soda Bread. My mother opened a food trailer, and she likes my recipe the best, so I was asked to make it for her to sell. I am going to brag a bit – it was a HUGE hit!

The garden is doing great! We got back and the AeroGarden was full – I’m going to have a HUUUGE salad for dinner tonight. Everything is looking great that I planted. I will be transplanting over the next few days, and half of it all will be going up to the lake.

I’m going to put together a garden for my parents at the lake, giving them half of my veg that has started. I need to put up a fence to keep deer out, but I’m excited to see how everything does up there. I did spread some marigold seeds out around the garden area on Saturday, and saved a few to start here before next week.

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