Undecorating

With the exception of cleaning up candy cane dog vomit, I think taking down the tree and putting away the Christmas decorations has to be the worst of all holiday chores. I finally sucked it up and got it done, and boy am I exhausted.

First, I had to throw our picked-over gingerbread house in the garbage.

Then, I had to tear this off of the wall:
And now I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

What is that delectable piece of eye candy, you wonder? Why, it was our Christmas tree, of course! Being that we're here in San Antonio for five (or apparently six...maybe seven?) months, all of our things are in storage, including our Christmas decorations. This year I had a break from our artificial tree, to which, ironically enough, I'm allergic. No ornaments, no stockings, no nothing.

I couldn't let my little boy get through Christmas without a tree, so I bought a roll of evergreen wrapping paper and made this little beauty. Sure, she leans a little bit to the left and her branches are bare in some spots, but she did the trick. I spent hours making little construction paper ornaments. It brought to mind a quote from one of my favorite Christmas movies and yours, "Christmas Vacation":
"[S]he worked really hard, Grandpa." "So do washing machines."

And to prove that kids will believe anything you tell them, here's a picture of my little simpleton taking in the piney aroma:

Anyway, I'm glad that's over. Now I can take back my apartment from the veritable winter wonderland it was! And, I think I am officially done talking about Christmas. Bring on Washington's Birthday!