Christmas Cleanup

And as quickly as it came, it has gone...

There is nothing left of Christmas in my house. At all. It has all been taken down, packed up and put away.  Hooray for me!

Not hooray Christmas is gone, because I love Christmas, but hooray I got it done.

This is only significant because one year I let Christmas and Valentines Day intermingle. I had gotten overly ambitious while decorating and had wrapped the entire staircase in garland and bows. It was a really rustic staircase and the decorations looked terrific.

The staircase had a real "cabiny" feel. Totally not my style but I really liked it.  It was a completely weird set-up though, the stairs came down the side of the living room about four feet from the fireplace, so it cut off putting any furniture on that entire wall or in front of the fireplace.  It was such an awkward living room design, like the architect had given no thought that someone might actually need to put a couch in there somewhere. But the master bedroom was HUGE, bigger than the living room, so that cancelled out the bad living room space.

We bought that house practically unseen. It was a HUD sale that was closing the very night we found it. We met our realtor after work and she showed it to us by flashlight. We stumbled through the house in the dark, trying to figure out what room was what...Even though we really couldn't see the house, we decided that we could fix anything we didn't like.  And it was almost twice the size of our first house.

So we bid. And won.

Then we had this house with this space we didn't really need. And two rooms upstairs that went largely unoccupied. And a staircase that mainly doubled as a chair, because the majority of the time when I was on the stairs it was only to sit on the bottom two steps. So that year, when I took down all the Christmas stuff I just kinda overlooked the stairs.

Then lost motivation to do it.

And then it became a matter of stubbornness because I can be kinda crummy that way.  It bothered my husband enough that he would mention it to me but not enough that he would take it down. His philosophy was that I put it out, I should put it up. And I agree with that-it sucks to clean up after people. But that stubborn side of me took over and I thought, if you want it done, then do it!

And I do generally try to practice that philosophy. Except when it comes to power tools. Those I avoid... minus the time my husband was out of town and I needed something cut. I grabbed his saw and came dangerously close to splitting the back of our couch open. And losing a foot.

I also try to practice the philosophy of learning from past foolishness. So there is nothing left of Christmas in my house. At all. It has all been taken down, packed up and put away.

Hooray for me!