Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Christmas wasn't EXACTLY what I had expected or hoped for.  DD came down with the stomach flu on Christmas Eve.  I got it on Christmas Day (sheer agony!).  DH followed us by getting it the day after Christmas.  Probably the worst Christmas I ever had :(  We had already made arrangements for my mom to spend Christmas at my sister's house because of expected bad weather -we didn't want to take the chance of not being able to get to her place.

But because I was prepared, we had plenty of food and drink in the house.  But it was by sheer luck that we had enough toilet paper & pedialyte on hand.  So for next year, I think I will be sure to have an Emergency Illness Plan as well.  How miserable to be sick on Christmas and have to leave home in search of medicines & soothing goodies!

I am hoping that your Christmas wasn't NEARLY as icky as mine!  We're going to try and make New Year's Eve a little more special than usual to make up for last week.  Mind you, usually we do NOTHING for New Year's Eve so it won't take much.  I purchased flowers for the table yesterday so it looks festive.  We have sparkling drinks (both grown-up & kiddie versions) and once again, plenty of food.

A huge Thank You to my Flying Partners for making this such a relaxing Holiday Season!

DianeDenmark
A Mothers Ramblings
Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense

A FlyBaby's Day Before Christmas

Twas the day before Christmas
And all through the home
All surfaces were gleaming
From hardwood to chrome.
I remember how dreadful it was last year,
Before I learned habits, CHAOS lived here.

The stockings were hung in early December with care
Knowing that FLYLADY presents soon would be there
The children were off all making their beds
While visions of feather dusters danced in their heads.
And me with my tea had just Royal Ragged the last tap
Decided I would be pampered with a well-deserved nap.

When out on the porch there arose such a clatter
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the clean window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutter and threw up the sash.

The sun on the breast of the freshly shoveled snow
Gave a luster of paradise to the objects below.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a miniature cooper decorated with reindeer.
With a little old driver so lively and aware
I knew in a moment it was Great Aunty Adair!

More rapid than timers my children I found
And handed out duties to all around
Now Janey,you swish and Tommy, you swipe,
Petey, you dust then the counters you'll wipe!
Jenny will sweep the stairs and the front hall,
Max will finally put away his football!
You've got your orders no need to stall -
Now Declutter Away, Declutter Away, Declutter Away ALL!

As luck would have it, my weekly home blessing was done
But I wasn't expecting to entertain anyone.
A quick crisis clean was all we could do
But the routines we had made would pull us through.
And then in a instant I heard the front bell
And the familiar voice of my Great Aunty yell.
As I opened the door and turned around,
In come Great Aunty with a leap and a bound.

She was dressed in all purple, with lace-on shoes to boot,
And her clothes were all pressed, a lovely new suit
She seemed quite surprised we let her in the front door
For CHAOS had kept her from visiting before.
Her eyes searched for clutter, but none did she find
She was welcome to look for I did not mind.
A gleam in her eye and a twist of her head,
But my kids had done well, there was nothing to dread.

She spoke not a word but looked high and low,
Nary a speck of dust found on any objects, you know.
Laying a clean finger aside of her nose,
She gave me a nod and produced a red rose.
I sprang to the door, to my kids gave a shout
They all rushed right in for they loved having Aunty about.
And I heard Aunty exclaim with great Holiday cheer
I can see that you all follow the Flylady here!




Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Nearly Done Now

Wow -just ONE MORE WEEKEND before Christmas!  I have so many little odds & ends to finish up.  Presents to wrap, one more package to send, supplies for school party, and 1 last major food shop.  But I don't think I'll be up until the wee hours of the morning to get things done at the last minute :-D  Hopefully I'll be able to take most of our gifts & food to my sister's next weekend so that on the day of our family party I can just head to her place (I'll be working the morning of our party).

I would have liked to be further along since I ended up with three bonus days at home this week thanks to the weather.  But I didn't count on how time consuming it would be to keep DD & the dog from hurting each other.  We are babysitting my mom's dog Seamus (maltipoo puppy 9 months old) for the time being.  She has just had a hip replaced & we all figured it would be best if she didn't have a dog constantly under foot during her healing time.  At any rate, it is very stressful to have a puppy & a toddler under the same roof.  I'm really wishing we would have put in a fence this last summer because then at least I could kick him out to play.  But it will be so much easier for Mom to get better if she's not worrying about him or having to take care of him.  Good thing both he & DD are cute!

It is the last full week of school too.  I have plenty of work to keep the kids busy, and LOTS of projects which they love.  The decorating is done, but we had to disable the lights on our wreaths.  DD just couldn't keep her hands off the cords and for safety's sake, they are unlit.  I'm sure we'll plug them in on the big night.

One good piece of news: I thought DD's Santa cookie plate was lost to us forever, but I found it this past week.  I'll just pop it in the shadow box along with the Santa Key (note to self -still need to assemble this) and we'll be ready for Santa! 

I've been much more organized this year than I have before.  But one lesson learned is that I need to seriously declutter.  It is hard to keep various projects going when there is no where to put things out of the way but yet still be accessible.  I'm thinking that Decluttering will be my New Year's resolution.  Have you decided on a resolution yet?

I'll need to sign off now, I'm preparing the meat to put in the freezer for the Christmas Eve meal!

Don't forget to check out fellow Flybabies as they reach the Christmas Finish Line:
DianeDenmark
A Mothers Ramblings
Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense

Christmas Without a Tree

I may have mentioned this before, but my house is very small.  So small that we do not have space for a Christmas tree, at least not this year.  My solution?  Hanging wreaths on the wall.  I wrapped the wreaths in lights, and then simply hung the decorations on the wreaths.  They are up and (nearly) out of Turtle's reach -a few birds have had ruffled feathers, but so far no lasting damage has been done.

And finally, the decorating project that I didn't want to divulge earlier because I didn't know if I could finish it in time AND I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Lucky for all of us I did finish the project and it did turn out!  I made holiday curtains out of white flat twin sheets and ribbon.  I was hoping to create a crisp look by combining red & white (my fave holiday colors this year).  The pictures don't do justice to reality! 

I was going to use the giant bells as pull backs, but I got lazy & didn't want to drill hooks into my window frame, so I hung them at the top instead

The peppermint candy ribbon fits perfectly in my Cardinals & Candy Cane theme this season.  DH was wondering why so many bird ornaments were making their way into our home, too  :)

I still need to make the Santa Key, but as I was pulling out the holiday decor I realized that the Santa Cookie plate was missing.  I have a nagging feeling that it was broken last year when we put things away.........