Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day, at least, comes to an end; last nite I went to my sister's and we had a good time -- some food, presents, and a game.  I used my knowledge of the periodic table to help win "Smart Mouth," which, as you can imagine, drew endless snarkery from my loving family.  But it was good!  Got some books, some music, some slippers, a Caitin Clark T-shirt (less crappy than the usual presents from Favorite Niece), rah.  Yesterday I also decorated the tree -- put some lights on, two boxes of ornaments, the usual fixings -- and of course it looks beautiful.  All Christmas trees are beautiful, of course, but as always, mine is... wonderful.  Does put you in the mood for the holiday.

Of course, it being Christmas Day, I went to Mass -- remembering to park on the legal side, just in case -- and it was quite good.  The church was beautiful, as always -- I went to the choir loft to get the Communion order (8 this year!) and I immediately knew that I had to go back there to get a panorama picture -- wonderfully done.  Mass was fine -- music was just right, as was the homily -- and then it was off to the gym for some pre-visiting workout.  I was surprised (ok, not really) by how many people were there, but it is a good time to go, and I am sure people were like me.  Then it was home for a bit, where I did some room cleaning and organizing in the spare room.  ALL of the piles were put away.  The mess of shoes in the corner were neatly organized, with some of them being culled and will be sent to the OC.  Found some piles of old medical receipts which need to be shredded.  But it looks much neater, you can see the floor, everything is in a spot, and I was impressed.  I intend to do more of this this long weekend!

Then it was off to do some visiting -- friends, godchildren, etc.  It was fun, nice, and pricey (kids love gifts); I ate too much, of course -- heavy apps across the board, despite the running around and hanging out.  Christmas does come but once a year, and there it was... funny; I drove by the Shoppes at Parma on the way home, had my gym bag, and decided to do a leg double, so as to burn more calories (one visit was cut due to my friend and his wife being too hungover, which amused me, but tomorrow is another day).

I was still keyed up when I got home, so I decided to enter the playroom and start some cleaning there.  This is easier said than done, as I put all the (empty) boxes from the Christmas stuff in there, so...half of the floor space is taken, and it is a bit hard to maneuver.  To be sure, there is much I did -- cleaned off the desk, took some boxes downstairs, put the Nintendo box in the closet (will I ever use it again?), and cleaned off some of the other furniture.  My collection of baseball stuff -- which occupies 105% of one bookcase -- will need to be moved, but as I am not going to add to it, or even use it... well, I need to get some sort of curio cabinet in the basement for that.  Alas.  Tomorrow I will try to clean out the other mini-desk (Favorite Niece used it to play school, and it has not been touched since) AND go in the attic and take stuff down/put stuff up.  I would not exactly say that I am getting older and at the point in my life where I need to de-crap, but... if things can be sent to a better home...