perspicacious.org

(Numbers correspond to the months of the year)
1. tiny tub found while househunting, 2. cutest Valentine ever!, 3. at the ice park, 4. snow on April 10, 5. carpet tearout in our new place, 6. summer sky, 7. 4th of july at harding lake, 8. flooded tanana river, 9. on a stroll at Creamer's Field, 10. day after Halloween in Alaska, 11. R's memories, 12. sunset– 1:20 p.m.

How will I remember 2008?

1. We bought a house!
2. I wrenched my back and had terrible sciatica for a few weeks in July– ow!
3. It snowed all the way until the end of April and started right up again at the beginning of October.
4. We worked and worked all summer to make our house a home– painting, replacing appliances, putting in flooring, furnishing it… It's more or less done now, I hope.
5. I killed my blog (screwed up updating wordpress) and let it lie dormant for about 3 months– until I decided I really missed blogging
6. I ended a school year with 30 students, but started a new one with only 19. 19 is lots easier.
7. We had all of our family over to treats and tricks on Halloween
8. R and I spent our first Thanksgiving and Christmas in the peace of our own home. And I made her write about it.

It's been a good year.

I like to use nice ribbon on gifts. It's prettier, and I can keep and reuse the pieces again and again.

I wrap each piece around my fingers and secure it with a paperclip. This way they won't wrinkle or get tangled, and I can easily see what I have.

These spools and pieces are easily stored in a gallon-sized ziploc bag in my tub of wrapping supplies. Now we're ready for next year!

I know the time I spent organizing these things will pay off next year. How do your organize Christmas decorations and supplies?

I always wanted an American Girl doll as a kid, and though my parents meant well, they pretty much never got us what we asked for– instead we'd get some off-brand thing that was similar but not really what we wanted. Most of this I got over, but I carried that wish for a Kirsten doll with me for many, many years. I must admit I still read the catalogues, and I can describe each of her little outfits and accessories even though I've never laid eyes on them except in print.

And, you know what? R got me one. She got me a Kirsten doll. Along with the above note from "Santa."

It's one of the sweetest things she's ever done for me. (And she does a lot of sweet things.)

Santa is listening, boys and girls. Sometimes you just have to wait a while.

Our Christmas decorations fit into 3 big tubs. One tub contains all our ornaments. The second has all our wrappings, ribbon, books and videos. The third is lights, decorations, linens, dishes and stockings.

One of my goals for this year was to weed the junk out of these tubs. We live in an 800 square foot condo, and storage space is at a premium here. There is no sense in keeping junk we don't use or want.

I took the time yesterday to toss/keep and organize the contents of these tubs. If we don't use it it's either thrown away, packed up and ready to donate to the thrift store, or in a box labeled "regift."

Part of the weeding and tossing involved sorting the gift bags, boxes and ribbon and packing them up nicely. I loved using these preprinted shirt boxes this year, so I'll definitely save them for another year.

I stacked the shirt boxes and tied them in a bundle with a piece of ribbon. I packed all the gift bags into one of those mega-sized ziploc bags. All this fit easily into the tub for wrappings and ribbons. Now it is ready for next year, with no need to buy anything at all.

I used the big ziplocs for lots of other things, too. The linens are all in a bag, as are the stockings. I hope this will make everything easy to see and find next year.

Why Christmas was lovely this year:

• The weather was warm (for us)– +8 F (-13 C). The frozen river looked lovely.
• Even the cats got some presents (tuna, mice, pompoms) because they are spoiled.
• Emily (our niece) loved the used ABC blocks more than anything else. She sat in the middle of the floor and played with them and ignored everything else going on around her.
• R's sandwich maker is fab, and she already made us a breakfast pocket of potato and cheese. Mmmm. She's in charge of dinner on Wednesday nights, and I see some sandwiches in our future.
• Holy cow, have you had Fran's smoked salt caramels? Ohmygoodness. Go buy some. Salty, sweet, chewy… Everything you want all at once.
• The pink jewely box is some sweet silver earrings.
• I made a coffee cake for brunch, and it was amazing.
• One more week at home with my love. It's supposed to be -50 (-46 C) this week, so we'll be indoors. Which sounds fine to me.