All That Cleaning for...? the Sake of Cleaning

This year, Christmas was supposed to be a little different. It was still different but not different in the way it was supposed to be! I knew it was going to be extreme cold conditions about a week ahead but I didn't think there would be the freezing rain or snow, or my daughter getting sick on Christmas Eve. We were going to go see the extended family that night and if it wasn't for her being sick, we may have got in an accident with the bad weather. My parents were supposed to visit us and stay for a day or two but they couldn't make it through the mountains because the roads were still too bad. They had to turn around. It was a bummer. It was also a bummer that I had spent a lot of time cleaning and spent a little extra at the market to prepare for them. I'm talking spring cleaning, cleaning. I was already broke and burned the rest of the whole through my wallet at the store and at the market. I have a few extra gifts left over that I didn't get to even give. I can still give extra to some, but I think to myself that is some extra money that I could have held on to. I can at least say I'm stocked up for a little bit with the groceries and hope the food doesn't spoil when there isn't that many people to eat it in enough time. It is nice to have an extra clean house though. I always procrastinate with cleaning because I'm always too busy. It definitely makes Christmas at home a little more comfortable. I have sympathy for the people who had to spend Christmas without the electricity and/or were stranded in their own homes. I feel like such a geiser to myself "things could always be worse," but I really feel sympathy for those people. The other negative thing that happened was that the fire alarm in my fire apartment went off twice! Earlier in the day Mitzi and I hung out in the car, but we had to withstand the loud noise the 2nd time while she panicked. I knew it would be nothing. Someone didn't clean their stove or oven or just plain forgot something was in the oven and burnt the food. (I had a dirty oven one year and the fire alarm went off on a cold and rainy day. I felt like crap). Christmas has been good. I've been a little anxious and always anxious to work but Christmas is the one holiday that I can let myself have an excuse enough to not have to work. Merry Christmas!