Sunday, December 26, 2010

My Family Thinks I'm Weird ...

The reason why -- I'll get to that in a minute.

We had a great day yesterday! Woke up at 3 am. I had had my allotted 6 hours of sleep and me back told me to get up. By 3:30 I was showered and dressed. By 4:30, I was back asleep on the couch listening to the Weather Channel. That's the first weird thing. I can't sleep in the bed for more than 6 hours and once on the couch - I have to have the tv on or I can't sleep there. BUT, no tv on in the bedroom.

Final time for waking up 7am. Got the make-up on and the hair straightened before waking the males. Courtney was on the road at 7:30 and Andrew was driving. The roads were snow covered and they were taking it easy. They made it here in good time!

I forgot to give Grace to Logan on Christmas Eve. I was so tired after coming from Mom's that I just completely forgot. So, while waiting on Courtney and Andrew - I gave it to him. Logan loves drawing and detail. So, he immediately got the shadows and crispness of the picture. It now sits on his desk - (ready for this) replacing the Maxim calendar girls! Now, that says something about the way he feels about Grace.

Christmas cookies for breakfast. I had gingerbread and Cool Whip. Weird thing 2 - I don't eat it on a plate with the Cool Whip sitting pretty on top. Oh no, give me a bowl and spoon and step back. I mush, crush, stir, and make a mushy squishy disgusting mess of the gingerbread.

We opened our stockings and marvelled at Rob's buying power. I had asked him to pick up a few things for the stockings a couple weeks ago when I was hacking up that lung. One of the things I had asked him to get were Reisen dark chocolate chews. I needed 3 bags. He knew one of those bags were for him. So, what does he do? Buys two small bags and a third that was three times the size of the small ones. The big bag was for him. Go figure?!?

I think Santa got everything the kids wanted. They seemed more than happy. Rob played with his tools and I played with some new electronics. It was a pretty good year.

So why does the family think I am weird? After we are done unwrapping and everyone has gone - I immediately start taking down the decorations. There have been years that I start to take ornies off the tree on Christmas Night. This year I was good.

I re-did the stitching room and left the living room alone. All the Christmas stitched items are down and the winter items are up. I dusted and re-arranged the Willow tree people.

This morning I was up at 4:30. Bridget barked because she needed to go out. Damn dog (borrowing that from Spinster)! There was no going back to sleep. The end tables are back to normal. Most of the Santa decorations are now on the dining room table and the only thing keeping me from starting the tree -- Garin is coming in a few hours. I might have him help.

My question to you -- how long do your decorations stay up after the holiday? I have a friend who doesn't put up their tree until Christmas Eve and leaves it up for the month of January. Am I so weird to start taking them down today?

I have a short week at work! Hip hip hooray! Off Monday and Friday. The rest of the week - should be short days! Crossing my fingers. Hopefully, my needle and floss will hit some linen! It has been 10 days since I last touched any stitching. I am starting to twitch!

Maybe I should go fix that twitch and stitch for a bit before Garin and Alivia come down.

I hope your Christmas was Merry!
Denise

17 comments:

Tina said...

Usually our Christmas tree and decorations stay up until Jan. 4th, any wintery decorations stay up all winter.
Glad you had a good Christmas....btw weird is good.

Siobhán said...

Sounds like you had a good Christmas! I hate decorations being up after Christmas, but it's a tradition here (and considered bad luck if not followed) to keep the tree up till the Feast of the Epiphany--January 6. I do try to put away the extra bits and pieces as I go, without DH noticing!

Emily & Scott said...

My hubby started the whole, put it up Dec 1st, take it down the 31st. But THIS YEAR!! I'm going to have to over rule him. Our tree is dead!!! DEAD!!! Its dry, dry, dry ... the water is just sitting there, this has been the worst Christmas tree ever. We've never had this much problems with a real tree before ever!! So, its getting the ornies taken off today, and coming down tonight or tomorrow!!!!

rosek1870 said...

My hubby like everything up til January 6th but I like to spend New Years taking down the tree - we Do leave outside, and Nativity up until the 6th. Then it is back to normal except for a few winter things. Sounds like you had a great day!!

Vicki said...

We put our decs up on Thanksgiving afternoon once all the guests have left and I start to take it down the day after Christmas. The outside lights stay up until January 1st. My husband wishes I would leave the indoor decs in place until then, but once Christmas is over, it's over for me! Happy New Year...

Kttycat said...

Our tree usually stays up til after the new year. But I might just have to take ours down early this year too. It feels too crowded in my tv room right now. And I had to take all my stitching things out to put up the Christmas things. So maybe in the next couple days!

paula said...

AS a baby/toddler the Christmas tree was put up after the brother and I went to bed . . . don't know when it came down.
When I started kindergarten, and Mom started back to work at school then . . the tree went up the 1st Saturday of Christmas vacation and came down the last Sunday of Christmas vacation. This stayed the tradition as long as I worked.

Now, whenever the husband wants to put up and take down, it works for me <;0}

Jan said...

Happy Day After Christmas, Denise!!

I think it is a personal thing, what makes you happiest, having the Christmas tear down out of the way or enjoying it longer. Just whatever suits you. AS for me, I leave it up...this year especially, since we won't have our family Christmas until New Year's Day. My youngest daughter and grandbabies won't be here until later in the week, and it isn't Christmas for me, until all of my family is here.

I think you are special, not weird! I really don't know how you manage on just 6 hours of sleep though, I would be a zombie! lol

Deb said...

Wow, you sure get an early start on taking the decorations down. I think I would too if I didn't have other people to answer to who want them up for weeks after the event. But normally I take mine down around New Years (a little before if I can get away with it).

Stephanie said...

I put my tree up the first weekend in December and take it down the first weekend in January. One year, I took all the ornaments off, but left the tree up til February! LOL

jayne@~an eye for threads~ said...

mushed up gingerbread with whipped cream eh??? IN A BOWL. Ok it is official Denise, you are one special cookie. As far as the tree here, well it will probably come down over the next couple of days but the rest, well, I'll take the special cookie on that one coz my Snowmen and Christmas/Winter stitching stay out ALL YEAR LONG. To many hours of stitching to go away for 11 months of a year and WAY to many Snowmen to store...plus, I like it that way...Kinda keeps me balanced...lol
Glad to see you had a nice Christmas and are enjoying your time off work...Welcome to my world...
As always

CalamityJr said...

My mom put the tree up (with other decorations soon following) the day after Thanksgiving (I even remember putting it up Thanksgiving night a time or two) but it HAD to come down the day after Christmas. She felt it was like a hangover if it stayed around! Me, on the other hand, usually get the tree up the weekend following Thanksgiving (not the weekend of, more like 9-10 days later) but leave it up until maybe the second weekend in January, at least until Epiphany. We don't have many ornaments on ours, so they aren't hanging there, looking at us in an out-dated way, and the tree lights - well, their comforting glow is the best part of winter, in my mind. Considering we've had more than 4 times our normal December snowfall, I need all the warm glow I can get, without getting tipsy!! lol

Chris said...

Again, I think it is all personal preference. Worked retail for many years and put up a treeso years and other years I didn't. Now that I don't work retail and since we acquired an artificial tree it goes up some time Thanksgiving weekend and will come down in phases the week after New Years. I love the lights and I love looking at the ornaments. I don't decorate seasonally except for Christmas.
I hope that everyone has a great New Year!

Deborah said...

I loved this post! Made me laugh. I try to get them down pretty much after Christmas but this year we are having company on New Year's Day s I will keep them up because my friend wants to see the tree. Oh well.

Carol said...

I'm with you Denise--I really like to get my house "back to normal" right after Christmas. I often take the decorations down, bit by bit, until by New Year's Day, they are all put away. I had to work the day after Christmas and also today and tomorrow, so I won't get to start taking stuff down until Wednesday...

Wishing you a wonderful new year :)

Catherine said...

We don't put up Christmas until after Thanksgiving and we take it down as close to the new year as we can - depending on my hubby's work schedule. I'll start putting little things away sometime this week.

I'm ready to have my house back and to do some good cleaning and organizing!

Pumpkin said...

That is SO sweet that your DS is that happy with Grace :o)

ROFL! Yes, I think you're a 'bit' weird ;o) But who isn't? I usually take everything down after January 1. I miss the smell of the tree :o(