Peace and quiet return

Fri morning the whole gang had breakfast at the Blue Plate Diner, then we said goodbye to Louis, Karen, and Evelyn. Now, what to do with the remaining 5 family members?

I went to the salon and got a haircut while Mary, Eric, and the 3 teens wanted to go shopping at the outlets malls. As you'd imagine, they were packed. 'Black Friday' they call it; the day when most of the world goes shopping. Fortunately our group tired of the crowds quickly so when I finished at the salon and called Spouse I met up with him and them in Rehoboth. We had pizza at Grottos, walked along the boardwalk, then returned home.

Spouse & I took Jordan for a walk and the kids watched TV and played their Wii. We warmed up the Thanksgiving left-overs for dinner and enjoyed it all over again.

Spouse played Monopoly with Eric and the kids. The boys got so worked up they were literally screaming! I don't understand this. Why don't parents recognize constant screaming as unacceptable behavior and request their children stop it? I retreated to the 3rd floor to watch HGTV and could still hear them 2 levels up. Later we all watched the family favorite 'Jaws' and the kids giggled over the 1970s clothing and hairstyles, as they do every year.

This morning after breakfast the 5 of them packed up their stuff and headed back to VA. It was so nice to welcome peace and quiet back to our house! I can hear myself think again. I just stripped the beds and collected all the towels. The 1st load of sheets is churning in the washer. There will be many more loads to follow.

After watching those HGTV holiday decorating specials last night I'm really in the mood to begin decorating the house for Christmas. For a few weeks I've been mentally sketching my holiday plan for the outside of our house. Being a Victorian it really lends itself well to Christmas decorating. I printed a digital photo of our house and then drew on it with red and green felt tip markers to simulate the decorations that existed only in my head until that time. Of course, Spouse's initial reaction was that it seemed "too busy", which really means he thinks it looks like too much work, so he tried to get me to scale it back. Rather than compromise my 'vision' or get into an argument over it, I simply agreed that if, while putting it together, it seemed like "too busy" (aka: too much work), we'd scale it back. This makes it look as if I am willing to compromise, when in reality I know it will not be 'too much' so it will all get done.

So, as soon as the sheets are ready to go into the dryer and I fill the washer again with more, I'm off to the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart to pick up the tools for my holiday extravaganza. I'll post photos when its done.

Drag Queen name of the day: Anita Cocktail