Not Creating :(

The holidays are sneaking up on me in full force. I was at Walmart yesterday, and wow! Aisles and aisles of sparkly, twinkly, glittery stuff hypnotized me and sucked me right in before I even knew what hit me. I wandered through them in a state of semi-consciousness and lost an hour of my life just ooohing and aaahing and touching the fuzzy stockings, the flocked wreaths stuffed with pointsettas, the ceramic snowmen that light up.

When I finally came to, I found myself actually looking forward to Christmas. That magical time of year that finds us packed like sardines in mile long lines at the store counters, stuck in traffic in the mall parking lot blaring our horns, and on hold for hours when calling the customer service desk of any given company that promises to ship that must have gift of the season overnight. Aaah, yes. Looking SO forward to it.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is giving handmade gifts. On a chilly November night, I love to pour myself a cup of eggnog, turn on the Christmas carols, and sit at my craft table creating my little pretties. By now, I should be doing that, or at least have an idea what I will be making and for whom.

But I'm not. Because my house has been a complete toxic bio hazard for far too long and it's time to stop the madness. So instead of whistling jingle bells and cutting pretty paper, I have been up to my eyeballs in Simple Green, Comet, and Pine Sol. For the past 3 days I have put every work project and holiday project on hold and scrubbed my kitchen from top to bottom. Actually, scrubbed is putting it mildly. I have taken every last thing out of every last cupboard, wiped down the inside and outside, washed what belongs in there, threw out or donated what doesn't, put it back. This includes under the sink and that junk drawer that was stuffed with so much important stuff that the drawer would barely close. Every appliance, inside and out, every piece of tupperware that was missing a lid or stained by spaghetti sauce. Every dust bunny filled corner and baseboard. My pathetic 40 year old arms are sore, my hands are raw, and still, I trudge on. Spring cleaning took about 4 years to get here, and I gotta take advantage of it before the urge passes for the next 4 or 8 or 10 years.

I did take a short, well deserved break for a couple of hours last night, and headed over to Stayce's with a crop bag full of Christmas Card making supplies for a little shindig she put together for a few of us girls. I was looking forward to getting a jump on my cards at least...excited about the new Scenic Route Rockland Christmas paper and all the wonderful things I was gonna do with it. I poured myself a little (24 ounces is little, right?) cup of egg nog, added a splash (10 ounces is a splash, right?) of rum, and all bets were off. I didn't finish one single card. Had lots of good laughs, took a couple silly pictures, and annoyed pretty much everyone that was trying to get anything done. But not one card was actually completed. By me or Stayce or Laurelee. My apologies to the "productive" side of the table...