...Christmas around our house. We finally got rid of all traces of the phone books; now there are paychecks pending, and those should arrive early this week. Jay and I did some work on our indoor decorating last night, and even if I do say so myself, the results are impressive. I have a good tip. I figured this out last night when we were putting ornaments on our tree. The hooks for the ornaments were in packaging, but they were all tangled together. I separated them, and put them on a plastic drinking straw by crimping one end of the hooks closed over the straw, making sure the other end of the hooks faced the same direction. They slide easily off the ends of the straw, but now, no more mess. I put the drinking straw with the hooks on it in a ziplock bag, and put the bag inside a small metal canister with a cover so that they can be stored with the rest of our decorations when we take everything down for storage. We also do use original packaging for most of the ornaments, and put everying into large plastic storage containers with tight fitting covers for extra protection.

I've planned our Christmas dinner menu, and have a shopping list for the meal and a small one for gifts. All in all, not too bad. although the phone book venture put us easily a couple of weeks behind schedule. Jay says he wants to put up our outdoor decorations today.

If we do the phone books again next year we will know better what to expect, and will plan accordingly. Jay did manage to complete 7 routes, and Lauren did three. She and Keith are excited; they will be moving (with Dylan, of course) into a two bedroom duplex right after Christmas. Lauren told me her maternal grandfather (a licensed minister) may perform their wedding ceremony. I like that much better than a justice of the peace.

In the coming year, I am going to make a concerted effort to write in my blogs every day. By the end of the year, I want to have a sort of snapshot of the events of the year, both personal events and notable ones from the news.