We have been subsisting on a steady diet of New Year's party leftovers. We may die of scurvy and/or hypertension, but we'll die happy.
--- 3 ---
The other day I tweeted about how I clean up for guests by shoving everything under the Christmas tree and pretending the whole mess is presents. @ConversionDiary retweeted this handy hint to thousands of people who apparently think I'm being funny.
People, I was serious. I thought everyone (with more than 4 kids) did the same. In fact, I thought that was what Christmas trees are for. You know, you can't hide a heck of a lot of stuff under a menorah.
Did I ever mention the time I was having an old college friend and his family over for dinner, back when we had only 4 kids, the youngest being a nursing toddler, and we were too broke to fix up our house at all? Borderline Squalid, that was our decorating theme. Sort of like Shabby Chic, only uglier and cheaper. Larry and I debated setting up ladders and dropcloths all over the main living area, so we could pretend that we were in the middle of a major home renovation. "Oh, excuse the mess!" And the crappy paint job, and the missing doors, and all that...
Haven't seen those folks since, actually. Larry, who isn't the quickest on the uptake when it comes to social cues, turned to me as my friend and his wife walked out the door and said, "Well, I guess we're not on HER A-list, are we?" Yeah, it was that obvious.
But, just for the record, Larry was wrong.
Jennifer would never argue over baked goods with her husband. For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
[TJ ginger snaps image: Stuff H Likes]
[Pizzelles image: Etsy]
The drop cloth ideal is brilliant. I used to hurl everything into the hall closet for the instant tidy effect but that doesn't excuse the hand prints on the walls and the dirt factor.
ReplyDeleteWe're pretty proud of it, ourselves. We did hurl a bunch of stuff downstairs to the basement family room, thinking they wouldn't see it. That didn't end well.
ReplyDeleteI'm the person who had extended family over for Christmas and Thanksgiving with the boxes that hold those decorations sitting at the edge of the dining room. Yeah, I'm classy. (Also, I'm rather comfortable with my in-laws... for better or for worse)
ReplyDeleteMy husband insisted this week, beginning on New Year's Day, that his sister had the correct recipe for Gram's sugar cookies and that mine were wrong. For the record, he was wrong and apparently the secret is to underbake them by several minutes. You cannot begin to realize how weird this is coming from the man who likes his chocolate chip cookies well-baked.
We're. Going to have to steal that drop cloth IDE. What with the missing wallpaper, "distressed" molding and everything else.
ReplyDeleteTrader Joe's gingersnaps are DIVINE. I eat way too many of them in one sitting.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't see that tweet, but I wouldn't have thought you were joking. I did the same thing!
And yay, Borderline Squalid! That's my decor too!
:) Great Takes lady.
I am clearly not bright enough to blog via phone...this will be like the 10th time I've tried to post this comment. BUT, is it really such a bad idea? I am so panicky about having the house spotless for the cable guy tomorrow that I asked my husband to look outside and see if the trash people picked up our neighbor's X'mas tree!
ReplyDeleteWell, of course Larry was wrong. Duh.
ReplyDeleteI *wish* we had new years' leftovers. A little shrimp mousse would go a long way here. On the other hand, we just demolished the gingerbread house. It looks like post-war Dresden. :)
I wish I had lived near a Trader Joe's when I was pregnant. I used to suck on candied ginger to fight morning sickness.
ReplyDeleteI think it's brilliant to shove it all under the tree. And less dangerous than shoving it all in the oven...
ReplyDeleteHere, the argument would have been, if you want them you should clean up the pizzelle press afterwards and not leave it for me to do.
ReplyDeleteDoes Larry have a blog where he's right all the time? History is written by the winners. I know....logistics.
ReplyDeleteHa! This reminds me of the question, "If a man says something in a forest and his wife can't hear him, is he still wrong?"
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete