See Ya Later, Christmas!

I thought I'd do a little cleaning on New Year's Day--just so I had a clean house for the rest of the weekend. What started out as a little cleaning turned into a much larger undertaking involving banishing Santa Claus and his friends to the garage for another 11 months.

Hubby took down the tree in the living room a couple days ago, so that was done, but I think I was just TIRED of Christmas and ready to do the rest. Sort of. You see, if you haven't been reading my blog since last Christmas, then you probably don't know that not all of the Christmassy things are banished right away--some linger on into late February.

It was hard, this year, trying to decide whether "peppermint" could translate to Valentine's. In some instances, I decided that it could, and in others, I decided it couldn't. But as near as I can tell, my kitchen is now ready for Valentine's Day. And yes, as a matter of fact, I DO have a Valentine's Day tree. I'll try to get photos to show you tomorrow when the lighting's better.

And the "guest" bathroom? It's still heavily populated by snowmen and snowwomen (are there two "w"s in snowwomen?). I know several people who leave their snowmen out after Christmas and some who don't even GET them out until after Christmas, so I think I'm in good company there. But they'll probably melt away in another few weeks--as will the snow village that's still on the mantle.

Following my family's tradition, we had tamales for New Year's Day. When I was growing up, my dad worked at a liquor store in a part of town that was heavily Hispanic and many of his customers would bring him tamales they'd made at Christmas, so that became our traditional New Year's meal--either on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. It was always fun to unwrap a tamale and see what was inside--usually beef, but sometimes pork or chicken--because the tamales came from several different families. Because I made all those tamales last weekend, I had plenty on hand, and they're so easy to heat up for a good and filling meal!

And speaking of tamales--Boy Boss's birthday was last Tuesday, and it's become tradition (three years now, I think!) for me to bring him a dozen tamales on his birthday, which is one of the reasons last weekend was my big tamale-making fest! Boy Boss got another birthday gift today--albeit a late one--when Ohio State (his alma mater) beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Go Buckeyes! The fun part of that match-up is that his wife's side of the family has ties to Oregon, so it's been quite a rivalry in the weeks leading up to today's game.

With having put Christmas behind me (quite literally when you consider the calorie- and fat-laden treats we've been enjoying!), my thoughts are turning now to Valentine's. I didn't THINK I needed to make any Valentine's Day quilts this year but now the bug's hit me and I ordered a couple charm packs of L'Amour by Sandy Gervais. How about you? Have you started to think about any Valentine's Day projects? Need any inspiration? If so, go visit Melissa HERE and she'll point you toward a project or two!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a few photos of my decorations and past Valentine's quilts. Happy stitching!