Christmas is Over!

Christmas is over, the last party has come and gone, Marley is adjusting to our wild and crazy family....and on the 7th of January I decided it was finally time to take down the Christmas decor! I love all our Christmas decorations, it's kinda sad to see them go! But it always feels so good to have a nice open clean feel to the house with boxes and boxes of trees, stockings, santas, snowmen, blankets, books and nutcrackers tucked away in the back of the barn where they belong for the rest of the year. Well actually...they haven't made it to the barn yet! They're stacked up in the entry way, but eventually they'll make it outside! And maybe eventually we'll even get the love seat back in the living room! This year Harrison was a huge help with the bubble wrap, Zoe was a big helper with the ornaments, and Marley was great chasing around everything that dropped on the floor! And of course, thanks go to Thad for holding the tree boxes tight so I could tape them up! This working at home thing is going great!!! FOR ME!!! I've never had help taping up the tree boxes, you can hardly get them in it as they are, and then the flaps barely overlap. But not this year! Those trees are tucked away like they just came home from the store!

Yesterday I went to Target to get a calendar FINALLY and I picked up a few after Christmas things. I LOVE AFTER CHRISTMAS SALES!! And I haven't done much shopping this year for Christmas stuff, so I couldn't resist the 90% off! This year the kids all BEGGED for a Christmas tree in their rooms and I totally refused! There is so much stuff all over the house, I didn't need 3 more trees to clean up! So I decided to surprise them next year and I got them each a tree for next Christmas. SHHHHH!!!! 5 trees for 60 cents each (alright, they're only a foot tall but they'll be perfect!!) with little glass ornaments for 50 cents a box (they'll probably be broken the first day) but the kids will be so excited! It will be fun. I got some wrapping paper ....Thad says, "don't we have enough wrapping paper????" But this is the really pretty foil paper....and for only 40 cents a pack!!! I got some bows and labels the other day, and that is actually all the after Christmas shopping I did this year! Oh wait...I did buy some gift sets and bath stuff at Claire's for b-day gifts and presents, and some snowmen picture frames for teacher gifts next year (if you're reading this you better forget!) so I guess I did get a little bit of shopping in after all! :)

Now I'm ready for SPRING! I always think when Christmas is over, Spring is just around the corner. I kinda forget that WINTER has JUST BEGUN!!!