Pull down the holly, it's time to clean-up
By Staff
Leada DeVaney, Editor
I've always subscribed to the theory that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'm loathe to criticize someone for something, knowing full well I will probably turn around and do the same thing.
That's especially true when it comes to cleaning the house.
The phrase "So and So is a really messy housekeeper," has never passed my lips and for good reason. Don't get me wrong. Things at my house are clean, and I can't stand the thought of something growing on anything it's not supposed to, but I'm not the queen of neatness and organization.
As I write this, there are boxes sitting on my dining room table (where do you store a glass cake stand anyway?) that need to be put up and my junk chair (the one closest to the door and the place where all the coats, mail and other stuff lands) is a little too full.
So, I'm not a neat person, much less the Martha Stewart of organization. That's why I'm hesitant to say what I'm about to say but it needs to be said and here it goes: Come on people – it's time to take down the Christmas decorations.
Let me explain.
Greg and I are house hunting and spent a portion of Sunday driving around looking at homes. No matter how old or new, nice or not-so-nice neighborhood we drove through, at least one house had all their Christmas decorations still up.
I'm not just talking about the stray strand of lights on the top of the house, either. There were several houses with the decorated tree still in the window. One tree was even lit and the mechanical Santa was waving from the top window.
Another house was beautifully decorated, complete with green wreaths hanging on every window. The house looked great, at least until you remembered that we're in the closing parts of January and these should have come down at the beginning of the month.
And since neither of us are neat and sympathize with the cleaning challenged, we tried to make excuses for the homeowners.
"Maybe they have been really busy and just haven't gotten around to removing that six foot tall Santa from the front porch," I said.
"Or maybe they figure it's so late they will just leave that huge inflatable snowman in the front yard until next year," Greg said.
Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas and I love Christmas decorations. I just think they look a bit funny next to the Fourth of July fireworks.
So, I guess I was throwing stones and in this case, they were hitting Santa right in the head. But at least you can't see a brightly shining Christmas tree in my glass house.
