Christmas

I need Christmas to be on a Friday every year. I mean if it really is Christ's birth we are celebrating, it should be in August, but that's besides the point. I just want a long weekend. It was nice to be able to relax and talk to family instead of rushing out the door to make sure we get to work the next day.

But I think Elmo and Patsy summed up the holiday best - "it's not Christmas without Grandma." We suffered three big losses this year - Grandmom, Aunt Charlotte, and my cousin's grandmother. These three ladies we very special and the loss is a gaping hole in our families. We remembered them with stories, songs, laughter and tears.

I think the funniest thing was the talent show that my sister coordinated. M-cat played his broken trumpet and wowed us with his magician skills, the Divine Ms Em paired up with Trinks for dancing and singing, S stepped out of his shyness to leave us rolling on the floor with his dance styling - the robot with break dancing. I quoted Ananbel Lee, my father - the Jabberwakky and my sister did The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Then my mom and sisters recreated their Grange acts - the Chipmunks's Christmas song (Pop Pop was Dave), Oh you beautiful Doll, Sugar in the morning, before my mom cracked open her accordian. My grandfather surprised us with a short poem about a billy goat. It was good fun.

I spent yesterday downloading several thousand pictures for my mother. I also set up her iPod to play in the car. Her car is really old, so I bought her an adapter to go in the cigarette lighter LAST YEAR for Christmas. But at least it works now. Mom wanted S to stay for her birthday on Monday, and she threw in a ride ALL the way to DE, so hubs and I are alone. I already sorted through S' toys and have a big bag to go to Goodwill. Trinks' room is a week long project since we don't her back until Wednesday. I can't walk into the room again, so this time I am not trying to work things out with her. Things are just disappearing. Her holiday presents will be held hostage until I see progress. Her clothes are also going. I cut her down to 5 pair of jeans. Apparently that was too many, so she now has 2. I have to find the magic number where she actually takes care of something. By the end of January, the kids rooms will have possessions reduced by 1/2, so then I can move on to the next room. If I focus on a room a month, I can meet my goal of getting rid of 1/2 of everything we have. You can't organize clutter, it all has to go.