Holiday Housekeeping

My Thanksgiving pies (which were previously baking in the oven) are long since devoured at this time. The day itself was deemed a success by all involved and included not only a huge feast but also a birthday celebration and a Yankee Swap. As an extra surprise my mom created an entire Christmas village with a personalized house for each guest to take home (mine is the Piccalilli Patchwork Quilt Shop!) It was so pretty all set up together it was almost a shame to dismantle it at the end of the day. I'm glad we did though because now there's a cute mini village set up at our house.

So cheery and festive was the sight of it in fact, that I was driven to devote the rest of the long weekend to holiday housekeeping. Each year I am repeatedly amazed at how time consuming the process actually is. First a bit of spring cleaning frenzy occurs as each room is dusted, vacuumed, and boogied of lingering evidence of past seasons (this years round up included bike helmets, water guns, wellies, terra cotta pots, a pumpkin or two, and lots of empty Halloween candy wrappers.) Next the holiday boxes are brought down from the attic and opened by a whole troop of helping hands. Fast forward two hours later and the "helping hands" are fighting over the remote control, the wise men are in league with a troop of power rangers, and the now empty holiday boxes have become a fort. At this point I begin to wonder if it would have been more relaxing to go out shopping on Black Friday than to decorate at home.



In the end, however, all is well and by Sunday night we are able to enjoy our first hot cocoa of the season by the twinkle of fairy lights. It was all very peaceful and Tasha Tudor like...until one of them discovered candy canes make great light sabers!