Ok, fine. I give up.

I should have gone dumpster diving instead of Christmas shopping. Yeah, yeah, they liked the actual gifts. But the toys that get the most play time are not toys. The kids have been busy building a complex, multi-level, labyrinth of "space-ships," "rockets," "diners" and various other buildings using nothing more than markers, crayons, glue, tape, string, an odd assortment of boxes and empty Starbucks cups. In other words, trash.

This is SO not right. I spent wads of $$ on toys! All they want to do is play with trash! They want to sew clothes from wrapping paper, build towers with tissue paper, build mazes with cardboard boxes.

Children, stop being creative! Stop playing interactively!

Oh, well. I guess being creative won't hurt them. Besides, I need the time to organize their boatload of new toys (aka junk).