Today I woke up and showered and dressed, then came downstairs to be shouted at by Stewie. Or, more appropriately, he shouted at me and then shouted at the doorway to the kitchen and back again. Apparently, he viewed the kitchen to be unsafe. It quickly became clear that there was water dripping from the ceiling, just inside the door, next to where the bath tub above is. A plumber visited and informed me that it will cost $3000 to repair it (well, $2800, but I assume something extra will be needed). Goody. Luckily, I was already planning on making a call to get some money from my nest egg, and now when we sell we can say we have an updated master bath.

In the time between calling the plumber and seeing him, I stayed quite busy. Remember all those gifts that I ordered on Saturday? Well, they’ve started to come in… Each in its own box. So far, I’ve received all the pet gifts (4 cats and 2 dogs), my older brother’s gift, the gift for my brother-in-law-in-law, and 1 gift for Peter.

So what did I do? I opened and checked all the packages and then created an Excel spreadsheet detailing what I ordered and for whom, where I ordered each item from, where they were being delivered, and whether they have been received. I also tracked down Stewie and put the anti-stress collar on him that had arrived with the pet gifts, as well as plugging in the anti-stress room diffuser for cats.

Yeah, I’m totally normal.

Anyways, today’s goal was to Deck the Tree (which was still up from last year, but not decorated). There were a huge number of boxes surrounding the Christmas tree, so I checked their contents and set them aside as either basement-ready or garbage. Then, I got a tree skirt and star from JCPenney at 60% off and put up many of the ornaments I’d ordered last year. Peter’s reaction, when asked? It looks fine. Ahhhh, 3 hours of hard work paid off.

So, the result of today’s hard work: you can see and appreciate the tree, but the kitchen is a disaster. We have boxes everywhere. I feel like we’re drowning in them. Most of that is because we have nowhere to put my stuff. So, do I take all my stuff and just throw them in my room until I’m ready to deal with my room, or do I clean my room and then clean the kitchen?  The latter makes more sense, but the former immediately helps both my husband and myself and our quality of life. So guess which one I’ll start doing tomorrow…