Before I moved from my Long Beach home after I sold it, I purchased many 66 quart lidded plastic boxes. You've seen them in all the stores. The bottoms are rigid clear plastic and the removable lids are white plastic. At my sister's ranch where I inhabited the old ranch-hand quonets I left most of the filled boxes in her barn, out of the weather, and unloaded only what I needed in the smaller abode.

By that time I owned about 80 of those boxes. They make great moving and storage containers, and I still have about thirty of them packed in my basement here. There are stacks of empties down there, too. I never unloaded all of my dishes, glasses, etc.

Yesterday and Friday I carried up seven of them which contain most of the Christmas decor, lights, etc. I will go down today and see what others should come up the stairs.

The cats love to examine and sniff the boxes, which are currently stacked in a corner of the foyer/dining room. Having been in the basement since January, I wiped them clean as I stacked them. They probably smell like Clorox CleanUp.

So 'Phase One' is nearly complete.

Phase Two is to clean and rearrange the area in the living room where the tree will go, so I can situate the inverted wash tub, then the tree stand and finally the Yule tree.

(Phase Three will be to go look for a tree. It must be smaller this year, as it will be every year.)

It is raining again. Every drop of rain sets a new rainfall total record here. The normal rainfall for a year is something between 30 and 34 inches. We have far surpassed 54 inches. I can only be thankful the temperature is above freezing! I am not in the mood to shovel snow.