Every December I'm reminded of how much I love our home at Christmastime. The lighted wreaths on the front door and flanking the garage, the fancy living room tree twinkling inside the window...I look forward to cranking the Christmas music, serving up some holiday treats, and getting out EVERYTHING Christmas--advents, garlands, stockings, nativities, nutcrackers, the big wrapped box of special ornaments we add to the "fancy" tree each night until Christmas--and ultimately bringing home a beautifully fresh tree to fill with our nostalgic, mismatched family ornaments.
Such was the plan I had for today. It was the first day of the kids' 4-week winter vacation and the day the kids & I would deck our halls! At 10 am, we cranked the Christmas carols and everyone excitedly started pulling out nutcrackers of all shapes and sizes to place up above the kitchen cupboards. To top it off, it had even started snowing outside. Seriously, we were something resembling a Norman Rockwell painting.
All was happy and bright, until about 10:45 am. That was the moment a deafening crash brought everything to a screaming halt. With help from a child who shall remain unnamed (it was an accident, afterall), a large glass jar of homemade canned grape juice fell from the top shelf of my pantry, shattering as it hit the tiled floor. Shards of glass everywhere. Pink-purple grape juice everywhere. Shards of glass in the pink-purple grape juice. Everywhere. Including around all 6 of us in the kitchen.
Maybe you can understand why the thought to grab the camera for a funny memory didn't even cross my mind. I screamed for everyone to FREEZE. Thankfully, only one was in the direct line of fire. I carefully got four kids out, then came back to brush glass off the fifth. No cuts. Safe exit. And thus began disaster cleanup. Where to begin? Words cannot express.
Hours later (no kidding), with a sparkling clean kitchen, scrubbed floors, scrubbed walls, and a thoroughly vaccuumed, inspected with a flashlight, then steamed-cleaned living room carpet, (the pantry borders my living room, you see,) we were ready to restart the tunes and try again. Then it was dinnertime.
And so, despite the fact that our house remains un-decked and my back is somewhat worse for the wear, I'm counting today a success of sorts. We're no Norman Rockwell, but we also have NO stitches, NO glass imbedded in little feet, and walls that are somehow NOT stained purple. Time to take a cue from Scarlett O'Hara and tell myself that tomorrow is another day. And a sparkling clean one at that.
Wish us luck.
4 comments:
Oh, Tracy! I feel so bad but at least no one got hurt. Good luck trying to get it done again.
OH my heavens that is probably the worst thing that could have been splashed all over the place. I am just glad no on got hurt. Could have been a much bigger disaster but as it was it was just a slight delay in the festivities!! Good Luck decorating tomorrow!!
OH man! Talk about Merry Stinkin Christmas!
You have such a way with words. What a priceless memory, and you did such a great job telling it!
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