Undecorating

Since I'm headed back to work on Monday after a two week break, I decided that today was the day to be somewhat productive. Today, Christmas came down. And it took forever. Forever. Like five hours.

I began de-ornament-ing the tree without Husby. But I had to have him for any ornaments hung over six feet. It's little things like that make me love marriage. That and the fact that he worked with me all five hours of undecorating.

I really don't mind taking ornaments off the tree and packing things in boxes. It's like a big organizing party as I try to put them in their proper boxes, turned just right so that the box will close.

(I think I failed to mention in the Christmas tree post that I'm the proud owner of 14 dozen new ornaments. Yes, Husby's wonderful mom has been collecting them for his future wife for quite a while. And they're great, glass ornaments; there are a dozen Santas in red suits and a dozen white churches among them. Just one reason why our tree looked great.)

Back to organizing...it's a challenge for me to get Christmas decorations as condensed as possible. I have three tubs for non-ornament decorations and need one more. Okay, maybe two. The tubs are so heavy every year. And this was the first year that I didn't have to pack them in the closet under the stairs.

While Husby was wrestling the huge Christmas tree box into the closet, a box of grilling tools fell behind the tree. It would have been a huge pain to pull it out, so we thought it could stay. And it could have. If I hadn't seen that it was the perfect amount of space for two other boxes. Then Husby went outside with Crickett. I decided that I could crawl over the three tubs that are just a little shorter than me, around the Christmas tree box and lower myself while balancing one foot on the brick ledge in the closet so that I could grab the tools and replace them with said boxes.

It was a plan. It worked in my mind, but it turns out I wasn't realistic in my planning. I climbed halfway over the tubs when I couldn't move. I didn't take into account my really short legs. I sort of dangled over the tubs for a while. I decided I'd wait until Husby came back inside to help me down. Only, he was gone for a long time. I had to propel myself back to starting position. And it hurt. I suffered consequences the remainder of the afternoon.

Plan B worked. I moved out all three tubs, one at a time. Pulled the Christmas tree to a horizontal position. Walked across the brick ledge. Picked up the tool kit, replaced it with the boxes. Returned the Christmas tree box to a vertical position. Moved all three tubs back into the closet. Done. Do you see how much more work was involved? I actually had to move the tubs.

I have to say that one of the hardest parts of the day--other than poor planning on executing reorganization of the storage closet and the fact that I didn't think we'd ever finish--was getting the humongo Christmas tree wrapped with cellophane and put back into that oaf of a box. Glitter was everywhere. It took some time with the broom, vacuum cleaner and Pledge to get the living room back to normal.

I've decided that when we're super rich, I want a Christmas tree closet. We'll take the ornaments off every year--I mean it is really fun decorating the tree--but the tree will be on wheels, able to roll to it's starting position.

Until then, it's just me and Husby. And that works just fine for me.