We have begun!

Hi everyone! Well, Christmas DAY is over but the Spirit of Christmas should last all year! Because He is the same yesterday, today and forever!!!

We started yesterday in cleaning out our big walk-in closet/pantry which used to be Daniel's closet. We are almost finished in there.

After doing that, we moved out to the big storage room which is attached to the garage. We call it the "pool room" because Ed built it specifically for Daniel AND it did have a pool table in it at one time! BUT after Daniel got married we moved the pool table out to the youth activities room at church and started using the room for additional storage.

My, but we did have some wonderful family times in that pool room. *sigh* And while I do treasure the memories so, I do miss those days and times.

Anywayyyy......during the years, which amounted to 5 or 6, in which I was unable to get around very well, things just got shoved and thrown into this storage room. We keep our recycle bins in there. When Daniel and Erin moved here beside of us, they put alot of their things in there. Ed has kind of tossed things in there helter/skelter over the years, so you can imagine the disarray.

Well, amazingly, I started in the corner just inside the door to the left and began sorting and uncluttering and sweeping as I went. In about an hour and a half, I had made ALOT of progress. Now we just have to contact our neighbor who runs a trash/refuse business and have him come by Tuesday to get all of the junk we no longer need or want. And I have to have Erin come over and tell me what to do with some of their stuff.

What an accomplishment it is to have that room finally decluttered and organized! Yayyyy!!!

The next area to be organized and decluttered is my hall closet! AND I am showing no mercy!!! :-)

Daniel, Erin, and little Jaylon came over Christmas Eve and we exchanged gifts and spent some precious time together. Here is Jaylon with one of his books that we got him and a little bead/maze toy.

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Ed and I spent a rather quiet Christmas Day together. Of course, in the morning, as usual, I talked to each of my siblings on the phone. :-) I just love them all so much! My oldest brother and his family went to Myrtle Beach for the holidays! It sounded like they were having great time and he said everyone, if they are able to, should do Christmas at Myrtle Beach or somewhere simlar at least once! I dropped a heavy hint to Ed!! :-)

I fixed a delicious breakfast casserole for us in the morning and later that day put a roast in the crockpot.

We went to see my sister Debbie later in the day where we had a wonderful. Though my siblings and I don't exchange gifts, I've always given Debbie a gift of some sort at Christmas. It is almost always something that she has told me that she needs. This year it was a duster. Actually, two dusters. You know....the kind that you wear around the house. A lightweight, usually cotton, housecoat.

Well, Ed started teasing her and telling her things like: "I can't believe you spent good money on those things just to dust the furniture with them!" or "How do you dust the furniture with those?" I egged Debbie on and told her to come up with a good comeback for him because he teases her unmercifully! To which she replied, "I just put one on, spin like a top, and go through this place like a white tornado!" That was pretttyyyy good!

Which leads me to ask, "Why do they call them dusters?" Does anyone know?

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, we did something we've never done! We went shopping! Yes, we went to Walmart in the morning, around ten-ish.

I think what prompted us to do this was the fact that my girlfriend Tina stopped by early that morning to give me a Christmas gift as she was on her way into Walmart to it the sales! Soooo, Ed and I thought we would venture out, too!

It wasn't nearly as crowded as we thought it would be and we got the last 4 bundles of deluxe pine garland for half price!!! Yayyyyy!! AND we got two storage bins and a couple of other unnecessary useful items. :-)
We came home and I made two cheeseballs for my girlfriend Pat and her husband. They came down a while later and I did her hair.

After that, we just relaxed until starting on the closet and storage room.

Then we freshened up a little and took off to see the Christmas lights in the area.

All in all, it has been a very relaxing and enjoyable holiday weekend!

And tomorrow, Jaylon will be here bright and early!

Here is another picture of him enjoying his birthday cake!! :-) (The boy loves sweets!)