Christmas Clutter Countdown Week 19

The Christmas Clutter Countdown continues throughout the entire holiday season, which ends with Epiphany on January 6, so we have two more weeks. This past week was Christmas week and our main focus was to finish up any last minute items and enjoy the holiday.

CHRISTMAS WEEK 19
We’ve had a wonderful Christmas celebration this year. Last Saturday my family was here for our family get-together – it went exceptionally well. During the week we worked on Christmas puzzles and enjoyed Christmas movies almost every day, including The Nativity Story on Christmas Day. On Wednesday, we wrapped Christmas gifts for each other and filled stockings. We attended the Christmas Eve Communion Service at our church. Christmas Day was wonderful. Robbie and I exchanged gifts Christmas morning. My niece arrived in time for our 10 o’clock tradition of serving pie (usually after Christmas Dinner everyone is too full for dessert until much later, so we always serve pie at 10am to be sure we enjoy some dessert – it also tides us over until dinner, usually served around 1pm). My parents arrived around noon and the five of us opened the gifts in our stockings. (We fill stockings for anyone spending Christmas Day with us.) Robbie and I prepared the entire Christmas Dinner and I must admit that it was delicious. We had completed all the prep work on Thursday and Friday, so everything went very smoothly yesterday. We had turkey breast, ham, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, praline sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, and deviled eggs. We played games and then watched The Nativity Story. After everyone headed home, we watched the Dallas Cowboys lose their game!

I continued with a daily post to document our December (although I need to do the 24th & 25th a little later today when I’ve had time to upload the photos). I also worked some on the mini-album I’m creating for December.

All our Christmas gifts are spread out in the living room and I’ve begun processing some of them today. We tried on all our new clothes (and unfortunately have a couple of returns/exchanges) and I’m working on the laundry now.

We decided this year to watch a different movie each evening for the 12 Days of Christmas. Tonight will be The Poseidon Adventure. You can see our list of movies and how we came up with them here.

DECLUTTERING WEEK 19
I even snuck in a little bit of decluttering this week! One of my Christmas turtlenecks was too small when I tried it on (now I remember why I didn't wear it last year!) so it went into the donation bag. And one of the Christmas puzzles we've been working on went in the bag also. We enjoy puzzles all year long and especially having a puzzle going on the table all through the holiday season. The snow scene puzzle was ok but not one we enjoyed enough to put together again and again each year.

I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to continuing to enjoy the holiday season for the next 12 days.