Today I’m going to roast a turkey, bake some more, pay some holiday calls, and possibly clean house but possibly 
not. The director and organist are coming over tomorrow night in between services for a quick snack, and my houseguests arrive today, so I am hoping that I’ll clean house. However, the truth is that I haven’t done it yet, and I have been planning to do it since Saturday.
Peg Bracken said, “You never hear anyone say, ‘I just adore Marcia. She’s such a meticulous housekeeper.’” And that is true. On the other hand, I don’t want them going away saying, “Good Lord, have you ever seen such a tip!” Perhaps thinking what a happy, busy family we are would be a good compromise.
#1 son said to me yesterday, “If you want a tidy house, you should clean it up.” He also made some austere remarks about the amount of unnecessary stuff we have around our house. My husband also makes comments like these. Evidently, I need to clean the house.
So these are my “before” pictures. Because part of the problem of housework is that no one really notices it, at least not at my house. They don’t admire it or express appreciation or anything like that.
The boys, in fact, if I specifically say, “Isn’t it nice to have the house tidy?” will disagree with me.
Or remark that we just have too much stuff in our house.
But I can see my “before” pictures and my “after” pictures and feel as though I’ve accomplished something.
Plus, you’re nicer than my menfolks, and wouldn’t be scornful even if I didn’t clean up.
Though you wouldn’t want to roast a turkey in this messy kitchen any more than I do.
Hmm…. I seem to be having trouble talking myself into this. What I need is a really fun and lively song of the day. “Run Run Rudolph” may be the best choice, but I think you’ve heard that eighty-eleven times by now this season.
I offer you “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,” a medieval carol which we just hardly ever sing nowadays. Here’s the tune I prefer
Find the words here. Then, if you find yourself wondering, “What the —?” you can find a variety of expanations of the words here.
Basically, we’re looking at a very old song from the days when a carol was a dance. Later puritanical traditions separated dance from Christmas carols, and from worship in general, but we don’t have to be bothered by that.
As for today’s baking, it’s time to bring out the scrapbook of family recipes. In this tattered book, we have all the great favorites for Christmas. I have noticed quite a bit of talk about ginger cookies around here lately (and by IM as well), so today we must have Ginger Crinkles made, and then either Venetians or Napoleon’s Hats, depending how ambitious I feel at that point.
As for the guests and the housework…
Perhaps, if there is enough good food around, they won’t notice what the house looks like.
