So, once again it’s been a while. That’s because blogging gets pushed down the priority list when you’re buried underneath 50 trillion moving boxes while celebrating your children’s birthdays while attempting a nugget of truth when you tell your five-year old that you are so excited to go get a tree and decorate it (and the house) while simultaneously realizing that you have yet to start buying them gifts two weeks before Christmas. A week after we moved into our new house Thanksgiving weekend, I was so far from being in a place where I could mentally picture bringing a tree into our already disasterous home that I remember driving to Target thinking of ways I was going to break the news to Ian that there would be no Christmas tree for us this year. A week, and 30ish (give or take) boxes later, we were driving up to the elementary school to purchase a tree. And it was all lovely, really.

By Christmas day we had managed to pull ourselves together with presents under the decorated tree and all. Most all the boxes were even unpacked. And, we actually had a really lovely day together, with yet more of that sunshine that has been oddly present so far this winter. Still, by Christmas night, I was done. A quick thought of, “I’m just going to take the stockings down…” turned into doing away with every single decoration and almost all of the tree decor. By noon the next day, Jeff was hauling the tree to the yard. I was renewed. And free to focus the rest of my time off this week on continuing to get our house in order. Speaking of houses…

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