Santa's got to get out of town. He looks like I feel. This is our middle son with his grandparents, taking it easy in the recliner, getting ready for a long winter's nap. (Santa, not the grandparents!)
It's a New Year and here's to the first Works for Me Wednesday of '09. I'm still putting things away, one tree and the outside lights are all safely down, but the big daddy tree in the living room is still up and comes on every night at 5:30 and every morning at 7:00.
What works for me is storing Christmas items in the room they decorate. For example, Christmas fingertip towels, stay in the bathroom underneath the sink, along with Christmas soap and hand lotion. Red and green plastic silverware goes in the plastic silverware drawer.
Christmas CD's stay with the other CD's. (I know, CD's are so 10 minutes ago, but no one is making me give up my Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton Christmas To Remember CD, and the boys won't let me rip it to our music library on the computer.)
Christmas candles, napkin rings and napkins go in the dining room hutch with the other seasonal candles and napkins.
Doing it this way makes for easy decorating, clean -up and locating. The rest goes in the garage where the scorpions and other critters can make merry with it until next Thanksgiving.
And finally, to whoever stole our lighted polar bear, I hope you're treating him well, he liked it here with the little boy whose heart you broke.
Go see what's working for everyone else, over HERE this year!
Hey Audra,
Santa looks so young!!! And Grandma and Grandpa look quite happy - young Santa must have gave them what they wanted this year!
So, do you play the Christmas songs all year long?
Happy New Year Audra!
Posted by: Lance | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 08:42 PM
Hi Lance!!!
Grandma and Grandpa are very happy and quite young themselves - yes? I really over did it on the Christmas songs this year, so I won't be playing them all year long, just for two months straight, I start the day after Halloween. Happy New Year to you Lance!
Posted by: Audra Krell | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 09:48 PM
I can't believe someone stole your polar bear - that is so un-Christmas-y! This is a good idea for storage. You know, for when I get some Christmas decorations for rooms other than the living room. I just have my tree to take down (ornaments already off) and the outside lights - kind of opposite of you. Hope your new year is going well. We should meet up someday. You let me know if you ever have another of those purse parties.
Posted by: Tara | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 09:52 PM
How sad about the polar bear! Thanks for the great tips! I have such a hard time finding all my stuff each year! I just switched to red and green boxes.
Posted by: Kim@ForeverWherever | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Hey Girl. Happy New Year! Life is good - God is great. Thankful for sure. Nice to 'see' you.
Posted by: CarolinaMama | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 10:22 PM
don't worry, my mom still has the record of kenny and dolly's Christmas!
Posted by: Brooke | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 07:00 AM
Santa looks a litte....deflated? :) He's cuter than I remember, too.
Your storage ideas are great. Sure saves the time trying to remember where you stuck that box.
Posted by: Blue Castle | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 07:09 AM
One year I stored our Christmas stuff in the room where it belonged...literally did not take the Christmas tree down til July. Although it was a fake one, it finally started shedding its needles and I actually had to throw it away. Now Dan is in charge of Christmas and he loves to store things here there and everywhere so that when it's time to decorate again, he gets to go on a scavenger hunt!
Posted by: marina | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 09:29 AM
This is a nifty idea, and it certainly takes care of the problem of discovering the Christmas sweatshirts on Dec. 23! I also keep a ziploc bag of Christmas CDs in the closet near the CD player, and keep my Christmassy red and green plaid cloth napkins in the kitchen drawers. Too many years I've found them in the attic stash too late to make use of them :o
By the way, I love the list of what you're reading. I absolutely loved Same Kind of Different As Me, and all of Anne Lamott's nonfiction books, too. I'm very curious to hear more about how you like the Josh Hamilton book; I read a profile of him last year in Sports Illustrated and he sounded like a neat young man with an interesting story to tell.
Posted by: lynn @ queenofthecastlerecipes.com | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 07:09 PM
Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog today. Thought I'd repay the visit over here. I like your storage idea. I've managed to fit all my Christmas stuff into 2 boxes for storage in the basement.
I agree with Lynn above, Anne Lamott is one of my favorites for non-fiction (at least her older work). Are you liking "Tribes"?
Well, hope we meet up again in the blogosphere. Blessings!
Posted by: Jenn Calling Home | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 08:12 PM
I am a little late getting around the blog world these days. Just today I took down my final Christmas decorations. My son wanted to leave his little tree up in his room. I decided to take it down while he was at school. Can you believe he came home from school and never missed it.
I love the picture and I am so sorry about the stolen polar bear.
That is awful.
Posted by: Cricket | Friday, January 16, 2009 at 07:39 PM
great idea! I have room in some rooms for a small box of extras!
Posted by: hadley | Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 09:07 PM