Quiet(er) day

Today was a quiet day in. We took the last remaining decorations down and packed them away in two boxes, which is quite an achievement when we started with four boxes worth and bought a ton more lights. I threw away a couple of boxes worth of old, broken, mismatched ornaments, tatty tinsel, duff lights, old ribbons and squashed bows. It was quite a relief to dump them and not feel obligated to put them on the tree, just because we had been handed them down from an aunt or Granny however many years ago.

D and T spent an hour or two watching inane stuff like Big Cook Little Cook, but then got bored and decended on the dining room demanding paper and pritt stick and scissors... Halfway through, they found a bag of those long skinny balloons you model things with in a box I was sorting, and so demanded dogs and giraffes to play with. I made them half a dozen (F was most impressed with hers!) and next thing I knew, D was at the ball of red wool with scissors and the dogs and giraffes were wearing collars, and harness and even had tufts of hair! A couple of regular balloons were adorned with hair and had faces drawn on them. All in all, a successful morning's arts and crafts, I think.

The girls had a nap, to make up for a series of late nights and broken sleep - the wind last night was a howling gale that woke them all up at some point - and I managed to sit down and actually read a book on Zen poetry I'd been wanting to look at in ages. How's that for amazing? I didn't spend the time frantically running around like a headless chicken trying to tidy up. The house has been tidy for three days now... does that tell you who really makes the mess round here? lol

And now, I'm catching up on email, blogging and drinking ginger tea, and feeling most calm and composed. Relaxed. DH is back tomorrow, so no doubt we'll be doing some serious talking, but for now, I'm enjoying the peace.