Cleaning Demon

On the last day of the year, I've pretty much spent all my time knee deep in boxes and pictures and toys, but I'm beginning to see some results.

I've divided the pictures into categories and made a half-hearted effort to file them by date.  The Christmas ones were kind of fun in certain years when I could go by what gifts were under the tree and what everyone had on.  The pictures from grandparents' houses were a little confusing.  I should have followed my mother-in-law's example and dated them all.  Too late now.

I had them all filed, closed, and in the cabinet when I discovered another box from Mike's parents' house.  More filing.  And labeling.  But it sure does look better, and I should be able to find at least the correct category when looking for something.

I threw away 2 plastic bags of duplicates and blurred or just bad pictures.  It felt good.  The bottom shelf has a box of 8 x 10s and larger - more than I would have thought and definitely more than we need.  

I then went over one cabinet and sorted through picture frames.  Really sad to have so many.  And sad that I stacked them so crooked.

Candles and votives are next in line.  We have way too many, but who can throw away a candle if it's not broken.

I pulled my Grandmother Box all the way out from under the bed and discovered I had overlooked a lot of the dolls I mentioned yesterday - a LOT.  

I was thinking that I must have eaten a lot of Happy Meals in Greensboro, but I think I discovered that you could just buy them without buying food, so I worked on getting them all.  Some duplicates and some I didn't get.  I hope Graysen is a doll person.

They all have pretty much the same face, but there are little differences that make them individual. 

I left this little guy out.  Only 2 boys in the set.

 

I also found more of the Gorham Doll of the Month ones.  I have 12, but 2 are April and 2 are December, so it's not the whole set.  

I love spending New Year's Eve doing just what I'm doing.  Mike is still in Texas, and once I get started, I'll have every cabinet emptied by tonight.  I'm almost afraid to open some of them.  We have way too many books (as well as too many frames and candle).

I can't believe what just happened.  Mama just came in with a big box of pictures to give me.  Those may just live in that same box.  I think there are a lot of duplicates.

We gave her a digital photo frame for Christmas and downloaded a lot of pictures for her to look at.  I think she really loves it.  I took some from her computer and some from mine as well as searching Facebook for pictures of families she knew from Andalusia and pictures of her church and various other relatives and friends.  Oh, and maybe a fourth of them her treasured cat, Miss Molly.

She mentioned wanting some more photos of Daddy, so I scanned the first two I came to.

Claude Ray, a special man who lived his grandchildren unconditionally.  We took those Christmases and long summer days for granted when they were going on, and now we only have the memories.  He loved all his grandchildren, but he and Gray had a unique bond, being his first grandchild.

Emily wanted me to send a picture of her at the same age Graysen is now, and this is one where they kind of look alike - if Graysen had a baby wig!

Guess I'd better get to sorting those candles - or maybe having a cup of coffee and watching some football. 

I thought yesterday about asking Mama if she wanted to ride to the Montgomery airport to see the Auburn football team leave for Pasadena.  I was afraid she would really want to!