Day 73: Christmas time!!

So Christmas prep has started. 2 months to go - and actually I've been legitimately Christmas shopping for ages in an attempt to spread the cost and now...this evening...I've even been wrapping! Again... my premature Christmas time is legitimate, and not JUST excitement, because I have to get things over to Africa and normally they arrive by March as I'm normally late and the post is so slow. We're having Joel's parents over this week on their month back from Africa where they live so I'm attempting to double their luggage and send it all back with them! Those things all form one bag of the 48 or so bags that now hang from every peg, doorhandle, coathook or just sit by the door blocking the entrance. The 'project' has progressed and this evening we have been busy! We had to have breakfast in bed today simply cos you can't get to the kitchen table. We also had tea in the lounge for the same reason and it is still covered in carefully placed piles of categorised stuff that I'm just not sure where it should go off to. Parts of the house are now really tidy. The top of the microwave is clear and for the first time since we moved in the big kitchen cupboard is clear... well the shelves not so much - but you can see all of the floor! It was piled waist high with plastic bags... and under all those plastic bags were all the things we're always looking for and can never find. I feel satisfied and excited but then I remember that having a clear top of a microwave is all very well and looks great ...but the four of us can't sit round and eat our dinner off it so I can't really congratulate myself till I've sorted the table maybe. However, amongst our mess we've taken a crate to the bottle bank and had a good look at all the different things we can take to the supermarket recycling so we're on the case with lots of other things... blocking my door is a crate of plastics and a crate of paper and card as the paper bin is full :s, bags of shoes as well as 2 charity bags for Tuesday collection... one of which said bric-a-brac on the list that it DOES want - hurray! I've been through the emotional trauma of throwing out some old teddy bears :( - its horrible - I just have to pic one up and they make me feel terrible for bagging them up. Makes me really think twice about buying anymore! I've also noticed I seem to have an addiction to shop bags. Why do I keep bags from every item of clothing I buy? Why? I obviously won't be getting any more this year but I have - across the house - probably 15 bags that each contain about 30 bags folded inside. I know my brain process says 'keep it - it might be useful'. Some of my bags are 6 years old and I still have the same brain process -ok, right there- I have a weird OCD.