{"id":157,"date":"2015-01-02T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T14:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/162.243.23.127:8081\/2015\/01\/02\/taking-down-the-christmas-tree-and-a-little-more\/"},"modified":"2015-01-02T09:41:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T14:41:00","slug":"taking-down-the-christmas-tree-and-a-little-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Taking Down the Christmas Tree and a Little More"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">The final step of Christmas &#8220;take down&#8221; is the tree.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">The first step is to remove all the ornaments. &nbsp;I lay a towel out so I can see them all on my oriental rug&#8230;..some of them can get lost in the pattern of the rug. &nbsp;I sort them, on the towel, by kid&#8217;s ornaments, fragile and non-fragile. &nbsp;Then I start boxing them up&#8230;..wrapping the fragile ornaments in tissue paper and then placing them in a Ziploc&nbsp;bag. &nbsp;The other ornaments are placed in their original boxes or in an ornament box I have.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-haC9eoMQ_hY\/VKXTBQMIVVI\/AAAAAAAABkE\/3WRRnesqAMI\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTake%2BDown%2B1.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"179\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-haC9eoMQ_hY\/VKXTBQMIVVI\/AAAAAAAABkE\/3WRRnesqAMI\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTake%2BDown%2B1.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1UTfwgDKBhc\/VKajjhmjJLI\/AAAAAAAABkQ\/-p60HppEKkM\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B11.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1UTfwgDKBhc\/VKajjhmjJLI\/AAAAAAAABkQ\/-p60HppEKkM\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B11.JPG\" width=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ypvk-fghOGA\/VKajmVyCulI\/AAAAAAAABkY\/0TA9UoG3x1I\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B12.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ypvk-fghOGA\/VKajmVyCulI\/AAAAAAAABkY\/0TA9UoG3x1I\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B12.JPG\" width=\"236\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Each of my children&#8217;s ornaments is organized in their own box and labeled with their name.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">When the time comes, they will easily be able to take their ornaments to decorate their own tree.<\/span> &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">After the ornaments are all packed up snug in their beds, it is time to remove the lights from the tree. &nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">By this time you are ready to throw the lights in a box and be done but when you open that box next year, you will be sad you took that approach.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">I take each light strand and wrap them around these &#8220;wheels&#8221; I purchased several years ago. &nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Each wheel holds 2-3 light strands. &nbsp;They then fit nicely into their handy, dandy carrying case. &nbsp;On top of the wheels, I place the cord that houses the &#8220;on\/off&#8221; button for the lights.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-GaGVt_mn9Qw\/VKapjW0SL3I\/AAAAAAAABko\/XIXelai0wBI\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B2.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-GaGVt_mn9Qw\/VKapjW0SL3I\/AAAAAAAABko\/XIXelai0wBI\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B2.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-38NjWIuR98w\/VKapmHFqFzI\/AAAAAAAABkw\/Q-emcWXgMHE\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B7.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"285\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-38NjWIuR98w\/VKapmHFqFzI\/AAAAAAAABkw\/Q-emcWXgMHE\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B7.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-qlSEtlEBDS8\/VKapoC4ZUCI\/AAAAAAAABk4\/oErvZqFw8Lk\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B5.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-qlSEtlEBDS8\/VKapoC4ZUCI\/AAAAAAAABk4\/oErvZqFw8Lk\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B5.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-z1utcK3UAEA\/VKapq8Gq8AI\/AAAAAAAABlA\/PHL5pA7mn44\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B4.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-z1utcK3UAEA\/VKapq8Gq8AI\/AAAAAAAABlA\/PHL5pA7mn44\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B4.JPG\" width=\"253\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Then the tree goes out the door to where my Christmas elf takes it to dispose of in our woods in the back. &nbsp;Therefore leaving me with mounds of pine needles to vacuum. &nbsp;Years ago, I stopped up my regular vacuum cleaner by using it to vacuum up said mound of needles. &nbsp;After that, I purchased my Shop Vac and it has done the job from that point on. &nbsp;All that being said, no matter how much I vacuum, I will still be running into and finding pine needles in this room throughout the year&#8230;&#8230;hard to get rid of those pesky needles!&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-NwS-OaDAqxw\/VKaqqDbGSsI\/AAAAAAAABlI\/tqqMnlTw3Z8\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B9.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-NwS-OaDAqxw\/VKaqqDbGSsI\/AAAAAAAABlI\/tqqMnlTw3Z8\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B9.JPG\" width=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Here is the &#8220;and a Little More&#8221; part of the subject line. &nbsp;In my last post I failed to tell you about my Christmas serving dishes and how I put them away&#8230;..so here<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">&nbsp;is the rest of the story.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Each of the dishes is wrapped in a Christmas Dish Towel to protect them while storing the Christmas towels&#8230;&#8230;a two&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">for one!&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-PmHBxi1Tyq0\/VKarI97XsHI\/AAAAAAAABlQ\/-N3cFxKDgY4\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B6.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-PmHBxi1Tyq0\/VKarI97XsHI\/AAAAAAAABlQ\/-N3cFxKDgY4\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B6.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ZIHWGorOYvc\/VKarKG01Y3I\/AAAAAAAABlY\/5HcBmKJMgzY\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B8.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ZIHWGorOYvc\/VKarKG01Y3I\/AAAAAAAABlY\/5HcBmKJMgzY\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B8.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">AAAAAHHHH, finally the Christmas decorations are put away and stored safely in the attic. &nbsp;And just like every single year, I walk downstairs celebrating and find the one. &nbsp;There is always one decoration I seem to miss every single year, no matter how hard I try&#8230;&#8230;.there is still ONE! &nbsp;This year&#8217;s winner&#8230;&#8230;the pillow.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-2gvICUIbLqI\/VKarv1D2RFI\/AAAAAAAABlg\/bTUwM-CrBTc\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B10.JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"174\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-2gvICUIbLqI\/VKarv1D2RFI\/AAAAAAAABlg\/bTUwM-CrBTc\/s1600\/Christmas%2BTakedown%2B10.JPG\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">So I grab the pillow, put it in its place and then know I am done until next year, with the way time flies it will feel like next week.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;\">Now on to 2016! &nbsp;Make it a great year!<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final step of Christmas &#8220;take down&#8221; is the tree. The first step is to remove all the ornaments. &nbsp;I lay a towel out so I can see them all on my oriental rug&#8230;..some of them can get lost in the pattern of the rug. &nbsp;I sort them, on the towel, by kid&#8217;s ornaments, fragile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,93,94,20,88,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-christmas-tree","category-decorations","category-home-organization","category-organizing","category-professional-organizer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peggywbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}