Woo-hoo! My house is dusted, and I'm going to Target!

I've been taking down my Christmas decorations since yesterday afternoon. It's a lot of work, but I dusted and vacuumed (all the millions of faux pine needles!-my tree will be naked next year!) as I went and so it feels good to have it clean now! Last night Ethan helped me take off ornaments, and he checked them each to see if they were really breakable, or if they could come apart. They thankfully all survived his testing.
This morning, I finished taking down garland, and worked on dusting-it took forever! I dust (usually..) as I put up the garland, lights, ornaments, Santas, reindeer, angels, etc. so I haven't dusted since. It was gross. Sequin-y bits, hard faux-ice (think hard candy-looking stuff), real dust, feather-y pieces (obviously plucked out), and more of the pine needle things. I had to vacuum the top of my dining room table carefully before I could even dust it. I just knew I'd rub in the sequins and hard candy bits and scratch up the table. I did okay. It is very clean and feels fresh like January should. ..Except that my table looks lonely and empty, as does my mantle. I may need a shopping excursion to find the perfect things to finish it.
..I tried taking a shopping trip into my yard this afternoon, but it ended badly. I took our huge loppers (don't really know how to spell it, but rhymes with coppers) out along with the huge glass vase I wanted to fill. It's about (was about) 16 inches high and about 8 or 9 inches wide. I have (had) a pair, and I love (loved!) them! I gathered a huge Magnolia branch-just beautiful! and some huge bush-branches (can't get Ches to think of the name at the moment-ok-Manhattan Euonymus), and it was filling up rather nicely. Until. the big gust of wind. It fell to the north onto the metal edging of the bed, and broke. Yep, it's gone. I scooped up my branches (why waste all that work?) and headed in. I found another much-less-perfect-too-skinny vase, and filled it with river stones and put in the branches. It looks ok. I'm not so happy with just okay, that's why I'm in need of the 'excursion. I still have the other vase, but it's in the living room filled with branches of curly willow, and fake snow hard-candy thingies, so I don't want to move it.
Do I have a big accident every day? Well, not quite, just most days. Last night's adventure was almost falling off the ladder at about 9 or 10 feet up. I pulled the tree toward me to take off the top ornaments, and I thought we were both headed south! Turns out, maybe my Wii balance games helped! : )
Back to the important things! ..What should I put in the center of my dining room table? I don't really want to put on live, growing plants since they could leave water rings. (Although that was my first idea.) So, another big arrangement? Big candle holders? Right now, I have a rectangle "dish" of pears in a row, an architectural pointy thing, and chocolate sequined flowers on there too. The table is set in lime and chocolate. Help??
The kids are all bathed and beautiful (and smell so sweet!), as I am getting ready to take them to Target to spend the gift cards their aunt and uncle sent them! They are sooo excited! The options are endless...
We're off to shop, I hope you have a great Saturday! : ) We have a fresh new year waiting (do you have a new calendar yet? My wall calendar is Mary Engelbreit!) so what are you going to do with yourself this year? My goal is to be in shape for my annual dr's appt on January 19th. Beyond that, no plans. Hmm...maybe to help Mary Claire learn to ride a bike with no training wheels, help Clay get better at tying his shoes (so we can skip the Crocs he's become addicted to..), keep up my exercise on the Wii, and allow myself to forget or not do one thing a day that I feel is imperative, read more with Ethan... Maybe that's it. I'll let you know in December how I did.
Ok, off to Target! Toodles!