The holidays were seriously a whirlwind for me this year. They always go by in a flash, but having a seasonal job in retail made it extra difficult to stop and smell the Christmas tree. (Only two more shifts, and I'm so ready to get back to normal!)
And please tell me how going from one Christmas tree to two exponentially increases the amount of time and storage needed. I took down the trees and most of the other decorations last night, and I have to say, I'm re-thinking my idea to have a tree in every room. It took FOREVER and I was so overwhelmed by the chaos at one point that I debated just throwing it all in garbage bags rather than spend one more second figuring out the best way to organize it for next year. Ten points if you can spot Bean in this picture...
Despite all that, there were many great times. Christmas day...
A weekend visit from our friends Jackie and Scott who moved to Seattle earlier this year...
And a New Year's Eve that went better than planned, because our friends Vic and Kerri had their sweet baby girl a few days early. They were supposed to come to our house for NYE festivities, but we came to them in the hospital first, then back to our house with the rest of the gang. We all took turns holding her. Even Mark, who thinks babies are made of glass, or dynamite. I took about a thousand pictures of it just to prove it happened.
Happy New Year, everyone!
The only bad thing was that their hospital is in Pasadena, and you cannot imagine the hoards of people there for the Rose Parade. We managed to avoid them on the way there, but by the time we left, they had shut down the nearest freeway entrance to hold all the horses that were going to be in the parade overnight, so we had to drive right through the mania. I wish I had taken a picture. But look at this face...totally worth it...
Happy New Year, everyone!
I had the whole week after Christmas off on vacation time, which was a lifesaver. I find that doing it room by room helps a lot. Then, Ryan takes down the boxes and I start the next room. This year, I got everythign down and put away rather quickly.
ReplyDeleteCleaning, on the other hand, not so much.
PS - I love your curtains and your living room. I don't remember seeing the room before.
Maybe you were just stressed and that
Yes, I've got to come up with a better system before next year. And, I haven't shown the living room as a whole before. I have that post scheduled for this month though!
ReplyDeleteI found Bean! (top of the couch, what Chris calls the kitty hammock cause ours sags there Tiger sleeps in it so much).
ReplyDeleteLooks like you guys had a great Christmas and New Years! As much as you dislike cleaning up after two trees, do you think it's worth it? I'm considering getting a more modern, funky colored tree for our TV room for next year.
Happy new year :)
they use a freeway entrance to hold horses??
ReplyDeleteWe've thought about getting a real tree for our family room and moving our fake tree in front of one of our windows in the front of the house so you can see it from the street. But I'm not sure I can handle the needles, watering, and other activities related to a real tree (keeping the cats from climbing it, disposal, etc).
ReplyDeleteSomehow my de-decorating seemed to go uber fast this year, but probably since we don't have a whole lot of decorations and all of our ornaments just get tossed into a bin (no special wrapping required!)
Thanks for taking all the pictures of Amanda, the are great. Thanks again for coming to visit all of us in the hospital. I am bummed that we missed celebrating New Years with you guys, but what a way to spend the holiday with a brand new baby girl.
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