Dancin’ & Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

Today after work/school, we went over to Mom & Dad’s house and Autumn was so excited to see that Papa was outside putting up Christmas lights.  She told me to stop the car so she could get out and go help him.

After dinner, Mom said she had a surprise for Autumn.  She found this jean jacket for a great deal at the kid’s consignment store and had to get it for Autumn so that she & Papa could have matching jean jackets.  Dad usually wears his jean jacket when he’s outside working so now he & Autumn can be twinners.

We didn’t stay long, b/c we had to go to the store.  We went to the Dollar Store so I could try and find some cheap boxes/crates to put things in to stay organized.  I found a few that I got to try that will work for the pantry.  I told Autumn that since she was being such a good girl that she could get one thing (since it was only $1).  She picked a little pink spray bottle so she can put water in it and use it on her Barbie’s hair.  She is 110% all girl!  Anyways, I noticed as we were leaving the store that there was a huge Christmas tree that kept blinking different colors, so we went to check it out.  Come to find out, the tree was blinking different colors b/c it coordinated w/ Christmas music.  Every 5 minutes a new song would come on, and Autumn was LOVING it!  She stood on this bench and just danced around to her heart’s content.

It was cold and a little windy, so I’m glad she was wearing her new jean jacket and I’m glad I had a blanket in the car that I could use to wrap up in and stay warm.  She was so excited that she said we will have to take Papa & Mimi there tomorrow and Andrew when he comes up to visit again.  I’m so glad that she gets such joy out of such simple (and free) things.  It makes me happy as her Mama to see her face light up w/ pure happiness.  I finally had to tell her that she could only dance to one more song, b/c it was already 9:00 and we needed to get home so she could go to bed.

I am getting frustrated w/ my house still having boxes all over.  I think I’ve gotten a lot done but it still looks cluttered and junky.  I’ve decided that I just need to move the boxes to the rooms they belong in and unpack one a day.  Right now I’ve got everything in the formal dining room, which is serving as kind of my staging area.  I was going through everything there so I could sort them out into keep, throw away, or give to Goodwill piles.  But that’s taking way too long & I’ve got a Christmas party at my house next weekend & the weekend after that, so I just need to move the boxes to the room they go in and unpack from there.  Does anyone have any tips on how to make unpacking any easier?