Ready or Not, Here It Comes

Today I did what no decent mother would do to her children.

Certainly no loving mother would do it on the second to last day of Thanksgiving break.

Friends, I made my children clean.

Not just tidy, mind you. Not just, move the mound of dirty socks into a laundry basket. I mean, move the stuff away from your walls and wipe up those baseboards.

And they did it. And damn it, they liked it.

We popped the Skaggs Family Christmas album in my son's player, and went to town. And then we tackled the downstairs a little. To top it off, we decorated the mantle over the fireplace that is still empty of yule log, but it's ready since I had a friendly sweep come check it out and remove about 10 years of crud from my chimney. (Oh stop it.)

I'm not sure how to approach the holidays this year. Work is plentiful and pretty formidable, and there's kind of this tidal wave my kids will be riding just on the other side of the New Year. So I hope to have some fun, and spread a little cheer where I can.

As sorry as I will be to send my kids off on Monday for a few days, it's time I got back to business. Back to work, and back to playing. While we were working we caught this favorite tune and my son said to me, "Not bad, Mom. You could do that one."

And goshdarn it, after all, I guess if I can get my kids to enjoy cleaning the glass on picture frames and dusting all 88 keys on my mother's old upright Steinway, I could probably learn to play this familiar holiday tune. Since we did get a start on decking the halls, it's appropriate. I think I'll get going and pick up that old Mando right now.

May you have a good night, and merry too, and may all be well that is.

Deck the Halls