Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009 - 9:16 a.m.

Ok, the in-laws arrive early tomorrow afternoon. Currently our dining room table is still covered in piles (avg. of 1 foot high) of stuff to be gone through (and not for the most part, big chunky stuff, but things like old, folded up receipts and water bills from 2002), as is the coffee table, the table behind the sofa, the kitchen counter, and the kitchen table. Every elevated horizontal surface, basically. Except for my work table, whcih has survived the first 24 hours in its new location without being buried in paper. For which it (and we!) should be commended.

Ok, so everything is covered in stuff. The floors and bathroom need cleaned. We were planning to rent a carpet shampooer today to help with that. Fridge desperately needs a cleaning, as does the area by the dishrack. Upstairs guest bathroom sink is crusted in art supplies. The baby's room-to-be is looking better, but needs vacuumed and shampooed once I finish carting away all the remaining detritus.

Also, we wanted to make them a gift basket of Christmas goodies to be waiting for them at their hotel room when they arrive. And we really should go shopping for Christmas eve and Christmas dinners. Ideally I would go ahead and make the pie crusts now, too.

J bought a tree, which we need to set up and decorate and possibly go buy more ornaments for if the ones we have aren't sufficient.

It would really help if I could pour a liberal dose of rum into my eggnog. Alas.

On the bright side, J got the new shelves hung in the new studio. Now I can put things on them, and that makes me happy.

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