Christmas Confession

I have a confession to make. Last month I wrote about decorating for Christmas and said that I “had” decorated after Thanksgiving. The way that my deadlines work, I actually had to write that column before Thanksgiving, fully intending on decorating the house the weekend after Thanksgiving so that by the time you read my column, everything would be as it should. But it wasn’t. We spontaneously decided to update the flooring in our kitchen and dining room, which began with the weekend of Thanksgiving spent tearing out hardwood flooring. Because of that, the dining room table and china cabinet made their way into the living room, where they stayed for about 3 weeks. As you can probably imagine, there was no room for a Christmas Tree and no motivation for decorating. This flooring project also turned into something like falling dominoes. Once the floor came up, we realized that some drywall needed to be repaired. And since we were going to be repairing drywall, we thought it was time for that huge bank of cabinets to be downsized, which showed a large spot on the ceiling that was cause for ceiling paint. And while we were painting, shouldn’t we change the color in the powder room? Changing the paint in the powder room means that dated wallpaper boarder needed to come down. And once we saw the powder room without a vanity in it, we decided that a pedestal sink would look really cute in there. Which brought us back to the flooring. Why would we put hardwood down again in the bathroom? So we decided to add some tile accents. As all of this took place, my Christmas decorating got pushed further and further into December. After all, besides the misplaced furniture, the house was a dusty mess. In mid-December I had given up on doing any decorating, other than the outdoor lighted stuff. Fortunately, my husband was not going to let us go without at least a Christmas tree. To my surprise and delight, one day he came home with a small potted tree, which we put little decorations on and placed in the living room next to the dining room table. As Christmas approached, things got back to normal as we picked away at the renovation project. Stockings went on the mantle and the table returned to its rightful place in the dining room. But our sweet little tree remained as we celebrated the season with our kids. The best laid plans don’t always come to fruition, especially when it comes to newspaper deadlines, but at least I came clean with you, which makes me feel better. Happy New Year!