I always dread taking my Christmas decorations down after "the Season to be Jolly" has passed. I'm a Christmas decorator and I have decorations in every single room. To be honest, it's a major chore to get my house back to normal. Once I pack away my decorations from each room, I'll begin in the living room. I'll tediously take each ornament off the tree. By the time I've packed these ornaments away, I find myself yanking the lights off hoping and praying I don't break the wire or the tiny light bulbs. I then pack each Santa away... carefully turning them...eyeing them...checking the bottom for a worn price tag to see if it was a 1/2 price Santa and then lovingly wrapping them! Once those are packed away, I "de-mantle" my mantle! Each clear globe/glass dome that covered the pine cones that were perching atop silver baby cups are wrapped with white tissue paper and placed in their plastic tomb til next Christmas. Now, I like to leave my snowmen out until at least February. Snowmen are NOT Christmas decor! They are winter decor! I'm quite adamant about that, BUT this year I was on a roll and I sadly packed my little white snowmen away with the....Christmas decorations. One reason I did this was so I would know where and what was packed!
Last year after the first of the year rolled around, I came home from school to find all my decorations down and packed. Donald had worked all day to get this done for me. I couldn't believe he had done this for me! Now I know I have lots of decorations but I think he had to buy about 5 more of those plastic storage boxes to get everything packed. I couldn't figure out why he used so many boxes! This year I began to unpack for Christmas and I realized why so many more boxes had been used. I just don't think men know how to pack like women do! He had labeled (over my labels) each box with masking tape (torn with ragged edges...not cut). I began opening each box and was amazed at what I found. One box was full of kitchen towels! I had wondered where my Christmas tea towels were! The next box I opened was....well what was this? It was brown...it had needles on it... was that the faint aroma of pine I could smell? OH MY....Bless his heart (my momma always said you could say anything you wanted to about someone if you said "Bless his heart" before you said it)....He had packed a cut/live Norfolk Pine centerpiece...complete with a candle in the center! One of my friends had given it to me as a gift last year! I had assumed he had thrown it away, since I knew the branches would eventually die! He had used one large plastic bin for this "soon to die" table topper! I laughed and laughed when I found this! Upon inspecting other boxes, I was sure I could have "crammed" several more objects in them! But the table topper was just too funny!
After I found that I vowed that I would make sure I packed my Christmas goodies myself or at least kept an eye on my "helper"! I used about 5 fewer boxes this year than we used last year. And I don't think I packed any live (soon to die) center pieces! I left the lights, tree, packed boxes and outside decorations for Donald to store and he did a wonderful job! He is very organized and he put everything away very neatly!
So now I'm ready for a new year....and hopefully next Christmas, I'll know exactly what I've stored in each of my neatly labeled boxes!
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that is sweet! I'm on my own. Keegan and Aiden took down the christmas ornaments and they still sit on the hearth of the fireplace. I pulled the tree outside and keegan was "helping" me remove the lights. i remember how my mom would get annoyed with me and say "nevermind!" and I would try harder because I didn't want to disappoint her. Keegan was useless and I told him "nevermind!" his reaction was "OK!" he went back in the house, slammed the door and went back to watching cartoons, leaving me alone in my socks and jammies freezing on the back porch that has no rail. I got pissed off and kicked the tree off the porch. Now I have to buy new lights next year. Better than serving time in prison for harming my offspring.
ReplyDeleteHa! That's so sweet that he did that. Joe hates Christmas decorations because he doesn't want to have to deal with the work that comes with them. He is good and will put the tree up, take it down, and get the boxes in and out of the attic for me.... which are the parts I hate so I guess that is ok.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, my parents used to throw the dead tree away lights and all and buy new lights since you can find them so cheap. Easy, but not so environmentally healthy now that I think about it!
Sounds just like me. I tell every ornament goodbye, kiss them and tell them I hope to see them next year! I DO KNOW how many ornaments and decorations you have and your house always looks so cute at Christmas. It is a big job to get all of them out, enjoy them and then put them away. I was amused about the masking tape--torn, not cut! The whole story about his packing cracked us up. I'm sorry I didn't get to see your snowmen before they retired for the year because I love snowmen.
ReplyDeleteI swear - if Luke would pack away the Christmas crap, I would not CARE how he did it... Torn tape?!?!? Looks good to me. Live centerpieces?!?!? Sure. Pack them up!!!! :-)
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