Good-bye Nancy Pelosi and other thoughts on the New Year

First, I guess we should start with Christmas. Every year when I am out shopping I long for one of the themed trees that have coordinating ornaments and decorations. I'm sure Matt would even let me but then I start unboxing all our Christmas things and remember where they came from. The ornaments mean so much to me, like the bear making a snow angel that Mom and I bought in Yellowstone when she and I went to Montana for Becky's wedding. Or the Space Needle ornament that Matt and I bought on our honeymoon in Seattle, or the maple leaf we got when we went to Canada while visiting Becky in Seattle when she was working at Boeing. I'm not sure I have a favorite, but I really like my fisherman moose holding a lobster from Maine. As much and I want one of those beautifully decorated, super impersonal trees, I'll always continue to have one with my collection of ornaments.

I wasn't ready for Christmas to be over this year. We finally got everything put back in the attic last night, but I kept out some projects to work on in the coming weeks. I really don't care for the month of January and so I'm decorating with some snow themed things to bring down the addiction of the the glitter and lights from December, it's like decorating rehab. I'll post photos later, but I have purchased a wooden sled from the 1960's, have visited my parent's wood pile and have some pine tree branches soaking in water in the kitchen right now.

Every January I also go through a phase where I think we have too much stuff. This year it all started with not being able to find floral wire and tacky glue. So now, I'm trying to convince Matt we should sell the guest bed, living room chairs, ottoman and Remy should be able to stay out of his crate when we aren't home so we can store the dog crate. I got the green light on 3 of the 4 things, selling the chairs failed, and Remy ate a muffin off the counter the very next morning when I left him out. Oh well, not his fault, I should know better than to leave food on the counter that he could get to. Impressively, he some managed to get the saucer the muffin was on into the living room without dropping it on the tile floor. We really need a camera set up to watch what he does when we aren't here.