This and That and 2013

Well, the first thing I would like to say is to address our family:

 NEW RULE: Any one experiencing any type of illness or malaise during holiday visitation times shall be herefore required to wear a face mask in the spirit of goodwill and humanity to family. It is the time of giving yes, but not sharing sicknesses. This year saw the fall of Chris (not to be confused with the birth of Christ) right at Christmas which earned us a 3 hour Minute Clinic (or as the manager there called it "Decade Clinic") in a Winter Storm, albeit for a very helpful prescription of Tamiflu. Grandma and Aunt Danielle succumbed with colds and bronchitis, and then right before departure I came down with a cold that left me subtly miserable and absolutely exhausted for five days. Now of course this wasn't as bad as the stomach sickness we brought with us during the Holidays of a few years ago...but you never know. So, from now on -- maybe we all get face masks in our stockings.

 With that out of the way, I would like to tell you two extremely boring pieces of information which have made me very happy. The first of which is that when packing to leave to return home, a miserable horrible task, I decided to try a 'packing trick' I have heard of before but have never used. Perhaps it was the fact that this time it was on Pinterest, and goodness knows if it's on Pinterest it MUST be good...but call me inspired, I ROLLED our clothes. I have heard that if you roll your clothes they would stay less wrinkled. I'll be the first to admit, wrinkling isn't something I really give a lot of thought to (we buy a LOT of Wrinkle Releaser here), but the real gain I was going for was the space it is supposed to save. You can imagine returning home after Christmas, with three young girls, any space we could gain would be a plus. And I'm proud to say -- it worked! I honestly think we saved quite a bit of space by rolling the clothes rather than folding and stacking (and yes, they did remain unwrinkled upon unpacking) and were able to fit more of our wonderful Christmas presents in our bags to take back with us.

 Boring tidbit two: each year when we stay at my mom's house I say I'm going to do laundry before we leave to return home. But, when it comes time to do it -- ugh -- it never gets done. (Laundry just won't listen and do itself.) However...this year...I did it. We did it. Actually, I think Chris did most of it. Either way, it was done. And let me tell you, never have I been so ridiculously happy to unpack bags in my life! How wonderful to unpack, knowing I'm not just adding to days and days of laundry -- it can go straight from the suitcase right to the drawers. This is huge people. Huge. Alrighty, that brings us up to date. We're home. We're healthy. Big Belle reluctantly headed back to school today. After an ultra relaxing and super lazy few new year days, I'm getting the house back under control and even working on some potential work ventures. I have some new books to read, a blanket to crochet, writing to do, children to homeschool, a house to clean, and more. Bring it on 2013 -- and this wasn't even a New Year's post!

 PS: Here's to two of the best books I have read this year: 1) The Greater Journey by David McCullough The Greater Journey By McCullough, David (Google Affiliate Ad)The Greater Journey By McCullough, David (Google Affiliate Ad) and Fall of Giants By Follett, Ken (Google Affiliate Ad).  I highly recommend both if you're looking for a good read.  Long, but good.