Massive Cleaning

All the preparations for Christmas are quickly fulfilled...the tree comes out of the box and is put together proudly. Ornaments are unwrapped and grace the tree while twinkling lights are wrapped around. Garland is strung, stockings are hung, and viola! Christmas season is alive and well in our house.

We enjoy it. We marvel at the tree a glow with cups of eggnog and believe it to be the "best" of all trees we've decorated. The shopping extravaganza comes to an end and the wrapping and primping of each bow makes magic come alive as hopes that "my list" will turn into reality in the minds of a little boy and girl. Christmas Eve with toasts and smiles, flashes of the camera capture the moment well. Christmas day and the kids are eager to tear into the carefully tied bows and packages. Full from turkey and stuffing, we sit and admire the tree some more as we congratulate the success of another Christmas spent together.

New Year's Eve and the champagne pops as resolutions and horn blowing mix together. Football madness and parade pageantry overtake us on New Year's Day as the tree still graces the living room. Then...

the dreaded....

the despised...

the only thing that a type-A person dreads more than sorting toys...

the Christmas clean-up ....

What took only moments or a few hours to set-up sends our heads reeling as we try to place all the Christmas back into the bins carefully and safely to make it for next year. All the memories of Christmas' past and those just created flow by. Sadness overwhelms as a headache pounds.

I hate the clean-up stage of Christmas.

It always takes forever, is polar opposite in generating those feel good moments of Christmas (aka...I said, leave the lights alone! No!!!! Don't touch that ornament...it'll roll off the table!!! Could you just help me lift the box and move it during the massive clean-up.

Exhaustion. Frustration. Nastiness.

That's what we get on a massive day of cleaning from the holidays. But, by the time night falls, a glass of wine, a clean house, bundled up ornaments, carefully stacked bins, and bags for donation reward us for a day that may have been exhausting, but obviously, productive.

Note: No children or husbands were harmed in the massive cleaning efforts for this year ;) Although HH barely escaped without a scratch...thankfully, he listened to my desperation and cries for help!