A few days ago, I was involved in a Facebook discussion about "de-Christmasing" the house and when most people do it. A friend posted a picture of her living room, back to normal, and figured that she was probably among the last to take her tree down. When the responses came in, it turns out many people like to stretch the season out a bit.
Me among them. When she posted this a little over a week ago - just after the first of the year - I have to admit, I had not yet even considered when we were going to take our decorations down. Typically, Adam and I like to leave them up until after his birthday, and never before Epiphany begins (Jan 6). I know we're on the later side, but I'm never one for rushing seasons in or out. I don't put the Christmas decorations up until mid-December, so I'm not in any rush to get them down, especially when there's nothing but the cold, gray January looming ahead.
But a few days ago, I was starting to think that I was dancing on the line between "letting the season linger" and "procrastinating and lazy". By the time you hit double digits in January, it's no longer something you can justify. It's time to pack that stuff up.
Naturally, because I can't start a project without making it needlessly complicated so it will be simple the following year, I wanted to reorganize the boxes somewhat. So instead of packing up the boxes and bringing them down to the basement, I started very slowly moving the various ornaments and knick knacks onto the dining room table. I figured I'd finish the plan of how to put them away this weekend, and then I'd actually put them away when Adam was away this coming week.
And man, did my procrastination pay off.
Last night, Adam went out for a bit after dinner. He had some errands to run of his own and then planned on meeting up with some of his buddies at a cigar lounge. My plan was to have a quiet evening with the girls, watching Cinderella before bed, then get some quick chores done and head to bed early myself. I was actually sort of looking forward to a quiet, yet productive, evening.
Well Madison threw a bit of a wrench into the plans first. She is currently obsessed with Frozen. If the DVD was available to own, she'd have worn it out by now. If she had the money and transportation to get herself to the theater, she'd have seen it about twenty times. She's currently begging for anything "Elsa" related - books, dolls, toys, coloring books, whatever she can get her hands on.
A few days after the saw the movie, I made the mistake of showing her that she could watch clips of the songs on her iPad, via YouTube. Stupidest thing I ever did. She used to use the iPad for things like ABCmouse and Super Why and Preschool Prep and other educational games. Now she watches songs from Frozen over and over and over and over and over.....sigh.
Anyway, instead of watching Cinderella, she watched clips. And more clips. After the movie, at bedtime, I basically had to wrestle it out of her hands while she screamed and howled and had a full out tantrum (while Reagan watched with amusement).
Once the girls were finally in bed - and quiet - I collapsed on the couch. I planned on doing some quick organizing, but I was just spent after the epic battle. I sat for a half hour or so, watching anything but Frozen, and then decided to put away the rest of the groceries, take a bubble bath, and head to bed early.
As I headed down to the basement to put the food away, I heard a sound no homeowner ever wants to hear in their basement.
A steady and strong drip of water.
No, not drip. Stream? Rush? Flow?
Whatever you call water steadily pouring out from the support beams. That. I heard that.
After a get home right away because our basement is full of water text to Adam and plenty of swearing and frantic moving of items and emptying bins, we found the problem - the water line to our refrigerator had split, and the fridge, not realizing this, kept sucking water into the ice maker and water dispenser - thus pouring gallons of water into our basement.
As far as water in the basement goes, we were lucky. Turned the water line off last night, quick trip to Home Depot this morning for a stainless steel hose and Adam had it fixed while Reagan and I were out at gymnastics. A relatively minor homeowner problem. All we had to deal with was the water already there.
The spot?
The corner where we keep the Christmas decorations.
Had I been on top of things and put everything away, our entire collection of Christmas decorations would have been soaked. Yes, we use Rubbermaid bins, but if the Rubbermaid bins that were in that corner were any indication, they are not 100% waterproof.
So by procrastinating, the only things that were ruined and lost were the old decorations that I really needed to get around to getting rid of.
By procrastinating, I saved both heartache, money, and clean up.
Thank you, universe. I win this one!
