Grands #3, #4, #5 and Christmas DeJunking

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it here again: I love this time of year. I do love the holidays and all that go with them. And I hate to wish them away, but by the time January 1 rolls around, I am more than ready to get all the Christmas decor put away and my house back to a nice fresh, blank slate. It makes me feel like I can take a big deep breath for the first time in a couple of months. Again, don't for a minute think I dislike the holidays. I LOVE Christmas and everything that goes with the celebrating of it. But, I also love January.

Having said that, I made up my mind that this would be the year that I truly would purge old decorations as I was putting things away. My holiday closet was getting far too crowded and hard to maneuver. There are shelves built in it, but way too much to fit on those shelves. And so much of the boxes are full of things that I haven't used in years. I bet I decorate with about a tenth of what is in that closet. Ugh. Something has to go.

And part of the closet goes back under the stairs. We have Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes stowed away in there, and I haven't used or looked at them literally in years. I think it's time I roll up my sleeves and empty that cavern. It's kindof frightening, honestly, but someone has to do it. It seems like it's some sort of a combustible fire hazard.

Every year I say I'll go through everything, and every year I end up just stuffing the same things back into boxes and stacking and positioning everything just so, so that it all fits (somewhat), and then closing the door until the next time. Not this year. No sir. And this quest of mine happens to coincide with some really great "grandma-nesting" time, so I really am slowly accomplishing this Herculean task. As I take boxes out to put things back in to, I look through the contents of the box, and set things aside that I haven't used in years. When I'm done, we'll have a Christmas Decor Giveaway with my kids. They can take whatever suits their fancy from the piles, and then I'll give the rest to Deseret Industries. Sounds like a perfect plan. Trouble is, as I was beginning to go through the painstakingly long process of going through each box (I'm not going to divulge here how many boxes I actually have, but it's wayyyyyy too many), Grandbaby #3 was getting ready to come! So of course I left my boxes and bags in the basement, and readied the house for the older, two-year-old sibling of Grandbaby #3, so that he could have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa whilst his baby sister was coming in to the world. And in case you haven't had the experience yet, I will tell you that when you're watching grandbabies, that's pretty much all you want to do. No work gets done, and that's as it should be. In fact, I didn't even think once about the mounds of Christmas decor strewn about my basement as I happily played with Grand #1

And then Grandbaby #3 made her arrival, and it became even more apparent that nothing else in the world mattered. Just our three beautiful grands. It doesn't get much better than that.

New Year's Day came and went with a slight celebration. We were happy and tired, and just curled up on the couch together with one of my other daughters, her husband and her sweet baby (Grand #2). We shuffled around in our sweats and slippers and enjoyed every lazy bit of it, holding and playing with Grand #2.

The next day, after our house guests had gone, my grandma-nesting kicked in again, and I carved out an hour to get down there and do just a bit more. But then Grand #1 and Grand #3 were calling to us, and we went over and made a visit and soaked up their sweetness.

That night I promised myself that I would work on my Christmas decor project the next day, and would accomplish great things with the heap. And I did get a couple of hours in before we zipped off to the temple for some much needed peace, perspective and renewal. When we got out of the temple, we got word from our son that his wife was in labor with their twins who were expected on February 18. We zipped down to the hospital, and a few minutes after we got there, two beautiful, perfect, healthy baby girls were born! Talk about our cup running over! We were (and are) so full of joy that we can hardly contain it. Grand #4 and Grand#5! And we still have two more to come, in February and March. We go through the motions of our days with such a big smile in our hearts and on our faces!

Yesterday, as we made visits to the various families, we thought how lucky we are to be able to see and visit all 5 (what?????) grandbabies in one day. They all live pretty close by, so we can get our baby fixes often.

And now back to reality. The basement. Today will be another day where I can get only a couple of hours in, but I'll plug away at it -- all the while watching my Christmas Decor Giveaway pile growing bigger and taller, and enjoying the luxurious space (one can only hope) of my holiday closet. And I'll have the 5 (+2) best reasons to have a huge smile while doing it. Wish me luck!