[Blessings2You]

Christmas in three weeks, and I look around this house thinking, "How am I POSSIBLY going to be ready?" Well, that's easy: I'm not. Ever.

So for the last two or three weeks, I just hit the high spots, scrape off the top layer, give it a lick and a promise, etc.

I don't dust, I don't mop, I don't clean the microwave or the stove top...all that stuff can wait until the two or three days before Christmas. I'm not going to do the same stuff six times between now and Christmas.

Energy has to go into "Christmas" stuff, like wrapping and re-arranging (my daughter-in-love is in a wheelchair) and cooking and cards (maybe, maybe not) and so on. So the house is at its messiest.

Plus, I don't WANT to reach for cobwebs, I want to reach for the Christmas music and scream along with my bad piano-playing as I run through my repertoire of top seven hundred favorite Christmas songs.

[braingonebad]

I'm not doing Christmas. Gifts, yes, and maybe pop up the 3' fiber optic tree, but that's it. Whatever I didn't pack up for ds is in storage. I don't even know where I'll be for the holidays.

[kicker]

B2Y- Not to sound like a sappy Afterschool Special or anything, but Christmas is in the heart, not in a cobwebless House. No one rremembers that or really cares. It's the thought and the attitude of the person. Jeez, some of my most really unfavorite aunts were really, really clean. Brain - you're moving. Take this year off.

[Dejibo]

People come to see YOU, not your house.

I stopped having christmas decorations years ago. When the last child went to college, I gave them to the local shelter for their own decorations. I lay out my grandmothers navity set from 1910 each year in a window somewhere, and that ends what I decorate with. I simply dont have the energy, drive or desire to put it all up, only to take it all down.

I have neighbors that do it up. I mean festive bows on every tree, and snow, and lil presents, and dollies dressed up in santa outfits. Its ALOT of work! pretty to look at, but I think to myself...nope, not willing to work that hard. isnt that sad?

so, please know that folks are coming to see YOU, not your house. They dont care if you have spider webs woven into snow covered scenes or if you can do surgery on the kitchen table. They walk away thinking about how much you made them laugh, smile, and how loved they felt.

[SandyC]

That's right! They come to see you, not the house. Even though we think they will notice it is very true they wont. Every year I think my house is a mess but when everyone comes they tell me how nice the house is. I decorate and I guess all they see is the decorations and us. Imagine that? Those that notice shouldn't come here because they are here to see us.

This past week or two has been very hectic. Mom is moving in with us and I had to get the decs up, finish my homemade gifts, get her room set up, find a place for the closet stuff and try to wrap before we take off 600 miles to get her. I did a little each day and I did it, I just have wrapping to finish! The cleaning can come later because in all reality, it will get messy with everyone coming in and out. I'll just wait until they leave. Of course the bathrooms will be cleaned and a touch up here and there but no deep cleaning until it's over.

So, try to enjoy and get done what is absolute to make things go smooth. Clean after they leave.

[SallyC]

I hear ya, loud and clear, Blessings. Christmas Day is the only day everyone comes to my house and I start getting a bad case of anxiety and a case of the guilts, about now.

I was always a miticulous housekeeper, so it's hard for me to be a slob, but I will do what I can do. without killing myself and that will have to do.

Just writing about it is making me sick to my stomach..

[Kitty]

I remember Christmas when I was a child. I remember the blue electric candles in the window at night. I remember my Dad playing his Bing Crosby White Christmas album (it's still my favorite Christmas music). I remember helping my Mom make Pecan Rolls and Cranberry Relish. I remember us laughing till we cried at silly stuff nobody else would think was even remotely funny. I remember the silver foil icesicle's we'd put on the tree along with my Mom's treasured glass Christmas ornaments. What I don't remember was whether or not anyone dusted or vacuumed. Whether all the china matched or whether the stove top was clean. I'm sure there were cobwebs somewhere....but nobody cared. That's not the stuff that people remember. People remember being with you. They remember music that was played and good food eaten with people they love. So relax and give yourself a break.

[kicker]

Kitty,
One year we put tree in playpen to keep toddling twins and cats from batting lower ornaments off. Now I wish I had more pictures

[Dejibo]

I say as long as the potty is clean...who cares?! let them have at it.

Good food, good friends, good times. no one is gonna pull up the corner of the rug and peek. I promise.

[Kitty]

Originally Posted by Dejibo

no one is gonna pull up the corner of the rug and peek. I promise.

You've never met my MIL............