Decoration Swap-Out & Lots of Laundry

The title of this post is the simplest description of Monday's activities from my perspective.

For Julie and Daddy, it was the day they needed to get back to work.  For the rest of us...well, our work was a bit different.  :-)

Mom woke us up with the instructions that we were to get unpacked and get the laundry started as soon as possible and that we were going to take down all of the Christmas decorations.  I'm sure that many of you can imagine the amount of laundry we might have had between simply the number of individuals and the fact that we were gone for five days.  Of course, it might as well have been six, 'cause Sunday's laundry got included as well.

As far as the decorations go, I think the switch from Christmas to only winter stuff is one of the hardest swaps to do.  How does one decide whether this decoration is specifically for the Christmas season or if it's fine to stay out all winter?  :-/  Some things are simple - like manger scenes and Christmas trees - but what about the rest?  Oh well, it's all done.

A couple of pictures - to please those who like them as often as possible.

Here's how one corner of the house started it's day.

Pretty, isn't it?!

It went to this...

And finished by removing all of this stuff and putting the table that's normally there back in its place.  This is in the corner between the stairs up and the stairs down, for those who are trying to picture it in their minds.

The tree also came down.

Mid-process

Noelle is very trusting, resting beneath the tree as we disassemble it.