Putting Away Christmas

This morning the girls got up early as usual. I found them snuggled on the sofa in their nightgowns watching television with Grandpa. Glitter had finally warmed up to him enough to sit on his lap.


After breakfast, I decided to take down the Christmas decorations. It took me most of the morning, and I kept walking through the house knowing that I've forgotten something. And then there was the tree, which was covered with confetti. Since it is an artificial tree, I decided that I had to remove all the confetti before putting it in storage. If it had been a real tree, I probably would have left the confetti streams on it, since it would all go into the garbage anyway. But, I really like the fake tree we have, so I picked it clean as best I could.

Once everything was boxed up, it was time to store it all in the closet under the stairs. There is no light in the closet, so I strapped on my Christmas present - an LED headlamp - before going in.


Here are the boxes under the stairs. The three red boxes contain Christmas decorations. There is one more red box that hasn't been put away yet. Wander is in charge of setting up and taking down the nativity. It will go in the last red box and then set on top of the nearer red box. The white box on the far left contains all the garland. Every year, I am amazed that it all fits in the box, and I wonder how I will managed to squish it all back into the box, yet it always fits. The cardboard box contains some candle shaped lights. We didn't put them in the windows this year. (The translucent boxes with the blue lids are Halloween decorations.)



It is very late at night now. So late that it is technically tomorrow. It is the fault of a book that I found. After lunch I took advantage of Grandma and Grandpa and left the girls with them as I went to get some groceries. Since I was by myself, I stopped by a resale shop for fun. There I found a book by Norah Lofts, who also wrote "The Maude Reed Tale," which is one of the very few books that I have kept from my elementary school days. So, I bought the book, "The Town House" hoping for another charming story. Alas, I have the horrible habit of getting sucked into a book and was stuck reading the book all evening, which made me rather sharp with the girls, and I didn't help them clean up their toys at the end of the day as I should have. Then I continued reading the book after they went to bed, and here I am really tired. And worst of all, "The Town House" turned out to be a disappointing read.