Free-For-All

For our short Christmas trip to Florida, John and I (well, ok, JOHN) drove his parents' Suburban. We had arranged to take two twin beds off my parents' hands and ended up with So Much More:

• 2 twin beds and bedrails
• bedding, twin size (the set I used in grad school)
• 2 decorated Christmas wreaths
• 2 decorated Christmas swags
• lots of Christmas ornaments and plaid ribbon (all matching)
• a brand-new piano bench
• 4 pillows
• 2 blankets
• twin mattress pad
• various Christmas decorations (candles, figurines, etc)
• my dolls & doll clothes, Barbies, etc. from growing up
• ? feet of lighted garland, filling a Rubbermaid chest
• a huge knitted afghan in pastel colors
• 2 MORE boxes of school stuff, returned from the teacher who borrowed them
• 20 or so books that we bought from a huge book sale by the state border
• and of course, presents

The Suburban was packed to the brim (though we did manage to find room for those books on the way back!). Things we did NOT bring back with us:

• the dollhouse my grandma made for my sister and me when we were little
• the 9-foot unlit Christmas tree in my parents' attic (they have a pre-lit one now)
• the kitchen sink

The night after we got back, John and I took apart the weight machine that the previous house owners left behind in a bedroom upstairs. It's now in the garage, with parts lying about, replaced by the twin beds. The room now looks like an actual bedroom (plus, all my school boxes have been stuffed into a closet).

Before:
After:

Upon finishing the room and looking around, I realized that most of the furniture in our house was FREE, from parents and grandparents. Seriously. The only big things we have bought ourselves (while single and after marriage) are some bookcases, the TV, some bedding, and lamps. EVERYTHING else is the result of familial generosity.

I'm not sure if John will be able to handle it when we buy a china cabinet in a few months. Kind of breaks a very good trend.