The dark days of early January

We usually come home from Tucson on December 30th.  It gives us a lot of time to recover from the holidays and to prepare for school/work to start again.  Michael went back to work on the 4th, Spencer started school the 5th, Elliott started school the 6th and I started work the 7th, so had we come home on the 30th we would have had plenty of time to get stuff done.  Unfortunately for us and our house, we were having too good of a time in Tucson and people kept feeding us good food, so we stayed until January 2nd. 

We got home around noon on Saturday.  And then reality hit.  We spent the rest of the day unpacking the cars, unpacking all of the bags and organizing the Christmas presents.

Part of that organization was reducing clutter and getting rid of things the kids had outgrown/don't play with any more.

That meant bye-bye for the Mickey couch.

It didn't go far.  We gave it to our next door neighbors for their grandson.

On Sunday the 3rd we started tackling Spencer's room.  It had turned into a terrible, terribly messy pile of junk in the last six to nine months.  I was working on his closet when he found all of his ties and bowtie.  He put them on and declared that he was quadruple handsome.

This was the pile to give-away by the time we were done.  If you're local and see something you like, let me know and I'll set it aside for you.

Because, unfortunately, the pile is still in the hallway more than a week later.

I took down all the Christmas decorations on Sunday but left the tree and the outside decorations up for another week.  I just couldn't manage all of it.  

On Monday the 4th we did something.  I don't remember what exactly, but I'm sure we did something.  I think we went to the mall at some point and bought clothes for Elliott's four year old photo shoot at the portrait studio.  I think I also continued with my usual January tidying, organizing and clearing of clutter.

This is the only picture I took on Tuesday the 5th.  I'm sure there is a back story to it.  I couldn't tell you what it is.

Spencer has been anticipating turning 100 months old since he was five.  It happened on Wednesday the 6th.  After he got home from school we went to the park for this most important photo shoot.  We wanted to find a shirt with a 100 on it, but that proved to be rather difficult, so an S for Spencer it is.

Official 100 months (8 years 4 months)

These poses were Spencer's ideas. 

He wanted a picture of him jumping off the swings.

He looks ridiculous.

Elliott was there too, but he is not 100 months, so the focus was off of him.

We also stopped into our old neighborhood on our way home to take some pictures by the water.

I worked on Thursday and Friday and those days were just jam packed with hideousness so I won't even go there.

I did manage to take pictures of the minimal New Year's decorations that I magically got up while taking down Christmas.

I don't even remember what normally goes on the mantel since it hasn't been non-holiday since September.

I bought this "party pack" at Hobby Lobby for less than $2. It's festive.

The entry way table also hasn't been "normal" since September.  It also won't be until April because we have Valentine's Day and Easter after this.

Saturday the 9th was actually fun and not at all lame like our first week back, so I will save that for the next post.