AuburnChick's Adventures

Whew!  I’m wiped!  Rooster and I just spent several hours putting away ALL of the Christmas decorations!

I got started on the tree before he woke up and enlisted his help when I saw him come down the hall.  He was not overly amused, but he jumped in anyway.

I got smart this year and took all of the ornaments off the tree first, even organizing them into groups on my dining room table…i.e. Hallmark in one area, homemade in another, and Auburn stuff in yet another area.  This may seem a bit anal, but I think it shortened the time it took to match up boxes with ornaments.

I also went through the ornaments and threw out the ones that have absolutely no meaning to us.  I got rid of broken or chipped pieces.  In all, I lightened our load by three boxes.  Whew!  Now I have more room in the closet for yarn!

I have to say that Rooster was a dream helper.  He did have ulterior motives…near the end, anyhow.  You see, Rooster has his eye on a new paintball gun.  Being short a few dollars left him hunting for a way to make up the difference.  He wound up washing the windows of the house.  We pay him $1 per window.  He has to wash the outside of them, so this chore entails removing the screens first.  Not an easy job.

I have to give him credit.  He knows he can’t get stuff for free.  Good habits developed now will hopefully stick with him later.

With money “in hand,” so to speak (it’s still technically in my account), He found the site he wanted to order it from, but alas…he didn’t have a credit card.  He needed me for the final part of the transaction.

Enter in bribery.

He was tired of undecorating.  So was I.  We only had a few things left to do.  We had the following conversation:

“Mama, why don’t you come over here real quick and put in your number.”

“Rooster, I would be more inclined to place the order if I had all of these boxes put away.”

Within an hour, every last item had been packaged and stored.

The house is now undecorated.  I can see out the front window again…both because the tree is not in front of it anymore, and because it’s clean.  Rooster’s order has been placed.

We both won.

Have I said how much I love the boy?

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: christmas, teenagers |