Bed Sheets and Blue Stuff
This entry was posted on 12/28/2011 10:56 AM and is filed under blather, Family Fun, Holidays.
It's been four days and I'm still a little bit hungover. No, not from alcohol; from everything else. Too much food, too much fun, too much music, talking, gift giving and receiving, too much jazz and liquor...
It's not really 'too much'. It's just the right amount. It just gets a little harder to recover every year and that's okay, it's worth it. I just have to remember not to eat and drink everything I see. It's hard but I can do it, if I really want to, which I haven't decided on yet.
The party began on Christmas Eve, which was Saturday. Josie had helped me clean and vacuum the place. The basement guest room was all cleaned up, the bathroom scrubbed and shiny and fresh linens laid out for the full sized air mattress and the twin bed in case Megan needed a firmer mattress than the air bed could provide. Maybe by next year we'll have replaced the twin down there with a queen. The problem in this house is the narrow stairways; can't fit a large box spring up or down. Ikea furniture has been the answer so far.
Side note; I needed new sheets for my bed and the air mattress. Jay and I have a queen but I've found that king sized top sheets are better for the two of us; we tend to hog the sheets. So, I don't buy sheet sets; I buy one size fitted and one size top. Somehow we've managed to wind up with a dozen king size top sheets and are down to only two queen size fitted. I don't know how that happened but it did.
How hard can it be to buy fitted sheets? Turns out it's darn near impossible around here. I went to Target, Kohls, Bed, Bath and Beyond, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and JC Penney. Only BB&B even carried separates and they were more expensive than the sets at Target. I smell a conspiracy! Damned, greedy sheet manufacturers are trying to force me to buy a product I don't want or need (queen size top sheets; PEH! [that's the sound of me, spitting in disgust]) and I refuse! I refuse, I tell you!
My stop of last resort was Walmart. I used to shop at the Walmart out on 494 quite often but I don't like it since they went all Super Walmart on me. Super, schmooper. They added a grocery store I don't like very much and to do it, took space away from every other department so they don't have nearly as nice a selection of anything as they used to. I only go there now for C&H brown sugar, which they have for 50 cents a bag less than Cub. I've decided C&H is the only brown sugar worth using. But then the Lund's near my house had C&H on sale for a dollar (A DOLLAR!)a bag less than anywhere else so I stocked up. I've got about a dozen bags down in my basement. If societal collapse happens in the next year or so, my plan is to barter for whatever we need with the awesome chocolate chip cookies I'll still be able to bake.
So I went with my Mom to the Walmart in her neighborhood. It's also a super Walmart, yet still has an awesome selection in other departments. Go figure. Not only I find queen and full sized fitted sheet separates, I bought three sheets for the same price as one would have cost me at BB&B. No, the thread count wasn't as high but whereas I'm a snob when it comes to brown sugar, I don't care at all how soft my sheets are. I sleep great either way. Jay could (and has) slept on a bare mattress. Thread count is not a thing for us. Not like good brown sugar. It's all about priorities!
Wandering around the store, I noticed that this Walmart still has a nice women's clothing section. When I look at clothes, I'm drawn to colors. I don't care what the style is if it doesn't come in blue. For years, I've packed my closet full of cerulean clothes. Then, last summer I bought myself a navy blue blouse and it looks so good on me that I've been looking for navy ever since. Turns out it's easier to find bed linen separates. Navy is out, teal is in.
I hate teal. I didn't used to but now I do. Hate it. It looks like a mistake. Believe me; I mix colors all day. Teal is the color you get just before you start over.
There's lots of plum out there, too. I look good in plum. Everyone looks good in plum. Plum is the most boring color in the entire spectrum. Plum is what we artists call a 'neutral' color. 'Neutral' is a polite way to say 'So boring I'm falling aslezzzzzzzzzzsnork! What? Who's there?'
But at Walmart, I caught sight of something in a really pretty dark blue.(You thought I'd lost my thread, didn't you? No such luck.) It turned out to be a very pretty cowl necked, long sleeved sweater with just enough sparkle in it to make it festive. I tried it on, it fit, so I bought one in cream as well. They were marked down to under ten bucks a piece. This is why folks love Walmart! Sheet separates and clothes that fit at a reasonable price!
Do you know what they have everywhere else? (Yes, I'm talking to you, Target.) Sheet sets and short sleeved sweaters. Honest to God, short sleeved sweaters. That makes as much sense as knee high tennis shoes.
I brought home my new sweaters and got rid of two turtlenecks I'd gotten at Penney's two years ago; one in teal and the other in plum. I used to look great in turtlenecks but now all they do is emphasize my chins.
Christmas Eve morning, Zack and Katie came over with their over night bags. The kids played games all afternoon while watching movies and I got the gumbo started.
Ty and Megan reached town in time to change their clothes and we all rushed off to church together. We got there in time for the beginning of mass but not early enough to sit in the sanctuary. We (and a hundred others) sat in folding chairs out in the hall. Our church has a glass wall separating the two so we could see and hear everything.
One thing we all wish we hadn't been able to see was the young couple two rows ahead of us. The girl never took her hands off her boyfriend. It was impossible to ignore and very disturbing. She spent the entire service trying to climb into his ear. If we'd been at the movies, I'd have thrown my popcorn at them. The only person in the church who seemed completely oblivious to the outrageous behavior of this girl was the guy she was all over.
Disturbing on so many levels.
After mass, we went home, threw the fish in the gumbo and braced ourselves for the tsunami of Pivecs we could hear coming from miles away.
An hour later, the kitchen island and table were covered with food of all descriptions, wine bottles of every sort of grape, including a magnum of white that looked like a stage prop; the deck out back was covered with coolers and cases of pop and beer; the dining room table was over flowing with wrapped gifts and every other surface of the house was covered with Pivecs. It was loud.
We ate, we drank, we sang songs, we exchanged gifts, we laughed, no one cried (for a change) and we danced.
The party went until about 10:30, when folks began leaving for midnight mass. Since we'd started at 5:30, it seemed like it was later. Once the house was empty (all my kids had run over to my sister's house where the other side of the family was gathered, to keep that party going after ours wound down.) and I did the Santa thing. I had presents hidden in every room of the house. It took about an hour to find them all. I think I found them all. I put everything I could find under the tree and sat down to enjoy my own private Christmas eve tradition; The Christmas episode of the X-files.
My kids came home half way through and watched the ending with me. We all went to bed with visions of sugar plums and Mulder and Scully dragging their gut shot bodies over the parquet floor of the haunted house dancing in our heads.
Another successful Christmas Eve!
