December 28th, 2006 - ‘Tis a gift to be simple
Another reason I’m glad we had a simple holiday planned: Four days in the last week, we’ve had workers in the house (and they’ll probably be there tomorrow, too). It started last Thursday when the downstairs windows were replaced. Friday, the upstairs ones were done. This week, they are tackling the upstairs painting (all the wood trim and doors must be painted).
We ended up not getting a tree, and I hung lights and things around the living room. We all loved it and may indeed do the same thing next year! Since we bought LED lights, we’ve left them on 24 hours a day all week. It doesn’t hurt that it’s been really grey and cloudy the entire time, so the extra light has been nice. We’ve not turned on the regular lamps as much, either.
I can’t imagine most people willingly replacing all their windows 4 days before Christmas nor having half their house unavailable the four days after Christmas (except for sleeping). For us, just a minor inconvenience, even the day at the hotel wasn’t too much hassle! (The day of the downstairs windows, Eric, Maggie, the cats, and the dogs had to be gone.)