Snow Day for 'the Keeper of Christmas'

All of the Hancock County schools are closed today--icy roads. Not IPS, where John works, of course. So the boys and I are home--and cleaning house for the impending family Christmas get-together on Saturday.

I'm not quite sure how I found myself to be "the Keeper of Christmas". We were going to have the Carnall family Christmas at Dad's, but then he had some trouble bouncing back from a cold and from his minor out-patient surgery, so...he canceled it.

I leapt at the cancellation opportunity to fit in the aforementioned Christmas activities (the 1863 Riley Home and "Two From Galilee"). However, when I called Mom the next morning, she seemed put out that we weren't coming to spend some Christmas time with her.

I discussed this with Diane, my sister in Denver, who said, "Y'know...it's not too late to fix it..." And since she used the language I use (about 'fixing it'), I thought she must be right. So--what did I do? I invited everyone to come down for Christmas down HERE.

My house has not seen guest since 2006 and it hasn't seen the Carnall family, I think, since we moved in in 1991.

So, I'm cleaning and decorating like a madwoman. Charlie's girlfriend, Courtney Love came over and helped. It was nice to have someone who knows how to clean.

I forgot that having people IN for dinner is more expensive than taking them all--remembering when I had the KidsPlay parents over for dinner, and how I bought new EVERYTHING (from glasses to silverware to dishes to tablecloths and decorations) to properly entertain...

Thus far, I've only bought a new artficial Christmas tree. And I will write about that under another topic.

In any case, the house got cleaned today. I built a fire in the fireplace and Ben made gingerbread cookies. A good snow day...