Christmas is Over

Today is the day after Christmas.  I had a good Christmas although it didn't seem like Christmas at all.  I suspect that all the frivolity got lost in my "to - do" list.  Toward the end of summer I made a list of all the things I wanted to get accomplished before the end of the year.

My list was comprised of lots of household things as well as my own health to take care of.  It was all complicated by my mother in law falling and breaking her hip in September.  She had surgery and was in rehab for an unbelievably long time -- 'till mid-November.  In the middle of her stay there my husband had cataract surgery which, between both eyes, took six weeks.  Not complaining as his vision is much, much better which I would have expected but it is sort of amazing to see it.  Anyway, after all that was done, I had several health care appointments to keep.

We also had scheduled for our new roof to be installed.  Every roof in our neighborhood has been replaced due to hail damage from storms last spring.  While we were waiting for that to happen, our a/c decided to go out and that needed to be replaced.  Of course, with the new roof came new gutters so after the old gutters were taken down the husband decided we needed to go ahead and repaint before the new gutters were put up.  So, he has been painting the exterior of the house.  There isn't much and the way the house is built it isn't too difficult -- or so he says and since I am not the one doing it, I choose to believe him.  That is almost complete.  We are painting the patio ceiling blue like they do in South Carolina.  It is supposed to keep wasps from making nests in the corners.  Oh, and it is supposed to keep the spirits away!

So, in the middle of all this home caring and health caring and mother in law caring came Christmas.  Christmas is pretty quiet for us these days.  The children are grown and gone with children of their own and plans of their own.  We celebrate with them but it isn't the same.  My shopping has changed as the grown ups don't really need anything and they are all picky (sorry, just telling the truth) so they get money and they can go get their own present.  The kiddos, well, I try to do the four things -- something they want, something they need, something to play with, and something to read.  I guess I just didn't want to wrack my brain (is that even a word?) so the something they want turned out to be money, the something they need was pajamas, the something to play with are games and puzzles and the something to read ended up being a Barnes & Noble gift card.  I usually like buying them books but there were a lot of restrictions this year so I just opted to let them pick out their own.  So, there wasn't much shopping going on for sure.  It makes me sad that I don't shop like I used to but, with all the other stuff going on, maybe it is better.  I probably would have been a blithering idiot by now.  Also, I didn't send many cards this year.  I don't know how I feel about that -- I will revisit that next year.

I did like it that Christmas was on Sunday.  Somehow that just seemed right.  I wasn't prepared for no mail delivery today though, that seems NOT right.  But now it is business as usual which, honestly, I am ready for.

I don't know why but I  tend to get sad over the holidays and I am not sure why.  My parents have been gone a long time now.  I am used to my children being gone.  I have no idea but the melancholy just seems to set in.  I almost took the Christmas tree down today but I usually leave it up until Epiphany.  Not sure I will make it this year.

Tomorrow I am going to continue de-cluttering my closet and making a bag of items to be donated.  I also need to go through the magazine basket and start recycling those things.  I guess you could say I am starting an early spring cleaning.  The weather has been so warm here that you would think it was spring -- I wonder if this is going to be another winter-less year.  Bad for us -- good for a bumper crop of disease ridden mosquitoes.  We need several days of freezing weather to get rid of those.

We had two snakes on the patio today.  That is all I can say about that.  I only saw one of them -- very small little grass snake.  I went back in the house.  I don't do snakes.

So, that is all that is going on here at Maison Brinkley (haha -- that cracks me up).  Hopefully the paint will be done tomorrow and then we can start on the inside.  That I am not looking forward to at all.  Hate the smell of paint.  And we are going to replace carpet.  It is all exhausting and I am not even the one doing it.

Ok, enough of this, I must go get the cedar pollen off of me and try to continue reading the book I have been stuck on for over a month now.  Slow going, very slow going.

Be back soon!