It's Going To Be One Of Those Years

Today we neatly stored Christmas in the attic for another year. I dismantled the trees and crated it all the other day, because every year we find something that we forgot to pack up. Once Baby Jesus was lost under the sofa; the next year Mary was found on a shelf. (Micah loves the kids' nativity set we got for him to play with. I think he loves it a little too much.) My theory was that if we let the crates sit for a day or two, we'd find the strays and get everything packed and stored together. For once. But I done good - nothing more was found.

After a dozen crates of ornaments and decor, 7 trees, and 8 window wreaths were stored away, I was wishing I'd focused more on weight lifting in my workouts. I was also glad I had a good vacuum, because boy-howdy the mess 7 trees can leave behind. It's like they wanted to leave something to remember them by.

The awesome thing about putting away all those trees is that I quickly realize the house is pretty large and roomy without them. And then I commence cleaning, because all that wide, open space is begging to be sparkly and shiny after the dust-gathering clutter is gone. So I cleaned. Dyson and I moved furniture, sucked up cobwebs behind furniture, moved dog crates, gathered tumbleweeds of dog hair hiding under couches, and swept the floor half a dozen times. I scrubbed baseboards and wiped walls. And because I could, I rearranged the living room into something new. It looked awesome.

And that's when I spotted the snowman sitting on a window sill in the breakfast nook. The Forgotten Item. Not a year goes by without one.

And then I realized that I forgot the extra large dog crate for the dog who just joined us. Nuts. It's a large crate (need room for babies!) and doesn't just squeeze into a corner somewhere. Unless the corner is big. It would fit in the dining room well if I moved the old school desk, which would fit better in the living room. So Dyson and I, and the Pine Sol bucket, swept and scrubbed the dining room from top to bottom and rearranged that as well.

Spic and span. Wonderful.

And then the kids came home from school. "Were you looking for something, or just cleaning?," quipped the teen boy.

Kids. I know I don't deep-clean every week, but for crying out loud, it's not that bad.

And then I found the entire toy nativity set on a shelf by the Matchbox cars. This year just is going to be THAT year, isn't it?