Why Do Boys Like Guns?

This question causes me great pause.  It has to be something they are born with and innately want to play with even into adulthood.  I never planned on having a house full of toy guns let alone REAL guns.  Then God changed things up on me.  I married a small town boy who loved to hunt.  If I loved him I would have to get over my fear and and my stubborn feelings over guns and we would purchase a very big safe.  Then we had children. I may have been naive but I truly thought that I would somehow steer my boys in the direction of NOT like hunting and stay home with me to watch movies instead. I began to know this may be a losing battle when Benen's first word was "ball".  How does this happen?  How can he be such a BOY by just being born a BOY?  Sure enough he is running around the house talking to dad about hunting and EVERYTHING is a gun.  So I thought with my second boy I am going to do something different...I got him a boy baby doll.  Matt was...a little...angry.  But I was determined to not let the gender of my child determine whether he liked guns or not.  To my dismay Cole hated the boy doll, quite often killed the boy doll with...you guessed it...guns. Even my neighbor refused to let her son have a toy gun in the house, so instead he made them out of sticks, you name it.  After years she finally relented.  It is not  enough that even they love guns but these boys can make any gun sound effect that goes along with it.  Automatic, explosion, mortar fire, lasers, light saber sounds the list is endless.  Is there something that is in the throat of boys that allows them to do this?  I cannot make these sounds! Is there any girl out there that can make these sounds?    
So now I look forward to the days when my nieces come over for visits and I can play with them and brush their dolls hair, color for hours and have tea.  More often than not my boys and the neighbor kids will come running through the kitchen packing their guns in the middle of a big gunfight but I guess that is just boys being boys?  But I will tell you I still hang on to that boy baby doll in the hopes that there is still a chance...

Are Christmas Decorations Worth It?

I realize that I know the final answer to this question will be yes but after spending FOUR and a half hours taking down all my Christmas decorations in my house I am seriously considering pairing down a bit for next year. I just lost over four hours of my life packing all that up.  I love putting all the decorations up in preparation for the holidays but in all reality when I am doing this and packing it all up a month later there is something that holds true both times: I am doing it ALONE.  My boys help a little then get bored and run away.  My husband may like the fact that the house is decorated but HATES the clutter.  So he has be harboring me to get rid of the decorations since December 26th.  So while he watches the Rose Bowl and the kids are out playing I am doing all the dirty work; getting rid of the holiday evidence.  The only thing that is saving Matt now is he is vacuuming the living room after pulling the naked tree out of our living room. 
Ulitimately, I guess it is worth four and a half hours of work to enjoy the santas and snowmen for a month along with the music and smell of cookies and pumpkin pie.  Maybe it is like childbirth you forget what a pain in the ___ it is so you will do it all over again:)