poplar road

Well, winter is here, Christmas is coming, and we are falling behind on our to do list, but I'm still hopeful that by Christmas Eve, Richard and I will be healthy, happy, and able to relax and enjoy both our snowy property and our renovated house. We haven't yet finished our bedroom, and the list of almost-but-not-quite-finished projects elsewhere is starting to look daunting to poor exhausted Richard, but with a little rest we might get our motivation back in time for the holidays. Nothing to photograph so far this month (unless I were to go crazy with snow photos again), but here are a few things my detail-oriented mind is tallying up:

number of days left before putting up Christmas lights becomes pointless: 15

amount of snow still covering the lawn: 2 inches

number of times our water pipes in the well house have frozen so far this winter: twice

total casualties of Christmas decorations ruined by mice: 7

quantity of laminate boards still to install to finish flooring the upstairs: 3

number of door moldings to be nailed up in the new bedroom: 12

number of new or infrequent items on our grocery/household shopping list: 21

number of guests we're expecting between now and Christmas: 1

number of friends we hope to see for the annual post-Christmas sushi gathering: at least 20

minutes spent formalizing our plans for Christmas holidays: 3

number of gift shopping trips: 0

amount of snow I want for Christmas Day this year: 2 feet

amount of time we'll spend just relaxing this Christmas: twice as much as last year would be nice.

If we can get ourselves moving, I hope to post pictures of our new bedroom, the guest bathroom, and maybe one of our livingroom complete with tree next week. We'll see. Richard is sick from lack of sleep and we may spend yet another weekend doing nothing much of anything, but I have a marathon shopping trip planned for tomorrow afternoon to at least get some supplies. Last Christmas, the big rush was getting the cabinets in our kitchen finished and moving furniture into our livingroom. This year I'm hoping the bedroom gets done early so we're not painting or moving furniture for at least a week before Christmas! I hope you're all able to get your preparations done early and relax too, before the holidays are upon us. Cheers.