Arrrgh!!!

I've been away for most of the past ten days or so as we prepared our home for Elegante Mother's 90th birthday party. I wish I could have been here, checking to see how you all fared on Thanksgiving, but there just weren't enough hours in the day.

We arranged for the carpets to be cleaned on Monday. My family assured me that it was wiser to leave down the old carpets than to put in new ones in time for the party. They were right! Given the food and drink that was spilled, I'd have been a wreck if the carpet had been new. I enjoyed myself a great deal more, knowing that my guests could do their worst, and we'd still be okay.

I had made an appointment to have the windows and chandelier cleaned on Tuesday morning. When 8:00 a.m. rolled around, it was just starting to rain, so we rescheduled to Friday morning. Of course, on Friday morning, we were not quite at the end of our first major storm for the season. The window washers didn't show, and didn't call. :-( I'll have to see if they plan to work this winter. None of my guests complained about dirty windows. :-) I was beginning to move plants into the garage to keep them from freezing. I cleaned out the mudroom closet, and the front hall closet, and started moving things off the counters in the kitchen.

Wednesday, one of my nieces was scheduled for a biopsy, so Eldest-Sister-the-nurse and I took her to the hospital and camped out in the waiting room. My niece stayed with us Wednesday evening. Party preparations were set aside for the day.

Thursday, I continued finding a place for everything, decorated three wreaths and hung them, and made swags for the carriage lights and hung them with dark red bows. I was working my way through a mountain of laundry. The guest bedroom linens were washed and we remade the bed. We had enough poinsettias gathered in the kitchen to open our own floral shop. My niece directed me, and I deposited the plants around the house. My niece and I headed for the salon, and I had my toes babied, while she did her hair.

Friday, the house was cleaned, and I spent the rest of the day trying to finish up paperwork in the office. I washed the tablecloths for the dining room. Elegante Mother and I went out for dinner with our quilting bee, and the guys "bached" it.

Saturday morning, I got up early to iron table cloths, and finish last minute preparations before we headed to the salon. The house looked very inviting, and seemed to swell to accommodate all our visitors!

Dear Husband laughed at some of the things on my "To Do" list. He wanted to know why I had to clean out the mud room closet. Any fool knows that I needed more space to HIDE THINGS!! Besides, I wanted to find all the boots and determine which needed to be replaced. I think I could do a future entry on "Why do guys question the need to clean??!"

I'm sure if I had been cloned, that I would have found more things to do to prepare for the party, but by the time our first guest crossed the threshold, we were reasonably ready. A great time was had by all!