Ah, souvenirs. The tears. The drama. The briefly lived joy.

As mentioned in my last souvenir post, souvenirs are really the bane of my existence. It feels like literally all my children care about – items to collect dust, to leave in a restaurant, to break 25 min later. We might as well take the Euros and literally throw them into the street.

Sometime in the early fall, I decided I had had enough of the souvenirs and I needed more tears 😂. So I flat refused to let them buy anything else. But, when they weren’t looking, I puchased most of the things they swore if they got, they’d “never ask for anything else again”. I saved them and decided they would make good Christmas gifts.

“The box of tears”

This year, each kiddo got a box of souvenirs for Christmas. Coined by Justin as “the box of tears,” it was the stuff they asked for, cried for, begged for with the addition of some other souvenirs I just thought they’d like.

I was pretty excited about the box of tears. Honestly though, the reaction was a little along the lines you would expect – they’d forgotten about most of them already, which just proves my point that they JUST want to spend money for the sake of spending money.

What were the items, you ask? Well, first Natalie only really asked for a rock from the zoo and a Belgium keychain. Also, she doesn’t get too upset when told no. Thank goodness, because we need some stability to balance the other two’s instability. And Benny doesn’t count – he just wants a sucker or a car.

So Natalie got her rock, her keychain, a glass perfume bottle from Italy, Earrings from Italy, clover earrings from me on my Ireland trip, the Alice in a wonderland notepad that she saw while digging through my bag (in May! So I withheld it all year), and an Alice in Wonderland pin for her Disney necklace.

Meredith’s box held her rock, a strange fake bird clip/hair clip (not even sure what it’s really for), Italian glass perfume bottle, Italian earrings, a Disneyland pin, and a coin purse and earrings from Ireland.

Wesley’s box held the most tears. That 0 euro bill really, really made him mad. He wanted that bill because we “never give him paper Euros”. That and the rock from the zoo – you’ve never seen a 6 year old boy lose his mind like that.  Over a rock – a freaking rock! He also got a Napoleon statue, a souvenir coin and a ball from Ireland.

Goodbye, money

Since the last post on souvenirs, we’ve said goodbye to a few more, forgotten about the “must haves” that I did allow, found some misplaced ones, and cried desperately over new ones.

Napoleon, you were a great hat. You made it 6 solid months and 3 visits to Waterloo. Overall, not disappointed in the purchase. Sad it’s gone, but we got some decent enjoyment out of you. Also sadly we said goodbye to your sword (Benny!!!) but we loved you so much, we bought you AGAIN.

Handmade Italian ponchos, I loved you. My girls, not so much. I begged and begged for them to wear you after Italy, but to no avail. It didn’t fit the day or it was raining or they had PE or they are had to wear a coat and it didn’t work. Sigh. (Side note: I’m forcing them to wear them today on our car ride).

Handmade Dutch wooden clogs – after one day of wear, you were replaced by boots for the winter (so I like to think).

Paris-themed manicure kit – procured with Meredith’s OWN money! She loved you sooooooooo much. Sooooooooo much she couldn’t put you down. Within ONE day, your super awesome nail file that was her “favorite thing ever”, just flew out of her hand into some sort of black hole (some perfectly small and unreachable, invisible spot in her aunt’s rental car).

Hello, old friends

FOUND: the knight’s helmet and lance from The Tower of London. Thanks to my last post, our friends realized Wesley had left them in their house! Yay! Similarly, the Guinevere-type dress Meredith “must have” from the Tower of London, also reappeared in her dress-up closet. London souvenirs reunited!

Worst mom ever

DENIED: A diary “just like Anne Franks!!!!” from the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam. Not even a week after Christmas and the presentation of the box of tears and reminders of past souvenirs, and I’m the worst mom ever again. I wouldn’t let Meredith get ANOTHER diary 🙄. She honestly must have 25 notebooks/diaries/notepads that she NEVER touches. She stomped out and threw a fit like a toddler. She’s 8.

It’s really our (my) fault 😂

As for us, we like souvenirs too. That’s part of the problem. I’ve created these “ou venir” monsters (Name of a Belgian souvenir store – Ou Venir). I enjoy browsing for small items to remind me of where we’ve been and what we’ve done.

We have a pretty random collection of stuff we’ve picked up – plates, little statues, city drawings, etc – pretty typical tourist stuff.

We’ve also been collecting Starbucks mugs for years. They’ve changed designs at least 3 times since our first mug. We don’t always buy one when we go somewhere, but we do have a decent collection (maybe 20-25?).

But, we’re not immune to breaking souvenirs immediately either. In 2008, Justin and I took a Space A (space available military flight) to Europe. Nothing quite like being completely unprepared. First, we stupidly packed for a country we didn’t end up in. Second, we packed huge rolling suitcases. Third, we ended up trekking on cobblestone streets (because cars couldn’t drive into the city in Seville) with the huge, ill-packed suitcases, that didn’t roll and easily tipped over… thus began our “ghosts of souvenir’s past”. 😂😂😂 RIP original Starbucks’ Paris mug. RIP Paris plate. Lessons learned.