As 2020 Winds Down

This has been the longest year ever.  You agree?  I can't wait for midnight on 1/1/21 to say goodbye to this year.  

There was beautiful snow on the ground this morning - likely to get additional snow later this week.  

J. and I have spent two super productive days working on finishing up our culling of the garage.  

I finally went through the bins of stitchery 'stuff' from my Mom.  I let a lot of it go - but I found the small pair of scissors (in the shape of a bird) she used when she was doing her needlepoint.  They are beautiful and I remember them from when I was a kid.  I kept a lot of the embroidery floss, some of the cross stitch fabrics, all the hoops and frames and a few 'kits' that were pics that we liked.  We let a lot go to our local thrift shop and as we put each donation item in the box, I'd think how happy someone was going to be when they found these treasures.  

Also worked on going through my quilting/sewing bins and got rid of a ton of stuff from those as well.  I barely even remembered that I made a couple quilts when the kids were babies - and my taste has definitely changed in 30 years.  Small calico prints aren't my thing anymore.  And a lot of fabric quarters I'd saved for a miscellaneous patch work quilt (or two...or ten) don't really make me smile with joy, either.  So I let them go - if/when I want to make quilts, I have 3-4 kits that I saved which will be fun to work on.  

J. made two trips to thrift stores today - including a trip with the car filled to the top with storage bins.  The huge size we used in Tracy worked because we had two boys to help us get stuff up and down from the rafters - but with just us two now, we're transitioning to smaller size 'flip top' bins (from Costco) to make it easier for us to store stuff on the garage ceiling shelves.  We let 8 huge bins go to charity today along with a bunch of other stuff. 

We've got one or two more trips planned tomorrow and we should be winding down 2020 with so much less 'stuff' than we started the year.  It feels FABULOUS to let all this stuff 'go'.  I may even sleep on it tonight and in the morning, I might feel like giving up even more of the quilting/sewing stuff. 

I didn't know that I have dozens of quilt books - and if I were to quilt, the last place I would look for ideas is in a book....I'd cruise the Internet for days seeking ideas.  You Tube videos abound, too.  

We're letting the books go as well.  

Christmas will be put away by the end of this weekend for sure.   

We're heading for Atlantis Reno on Thursday for NYE.  Sort of debated spending the night but we have a room and we figure why not.  We both want to go - and play - and then we really don't like the idea of driving home late at night on a holiday where people drinking and driving might be more prevalent then other days of the year - so we'll stay.  I've warned J. that I plan to play slots into the wee hours of the morning hopefully.  (I hear the slots are fairly loose on NYE and I want to play late to see what happens.  There are so many HUGE jackpots on the machines - it could be a very exciting night).  

We're starting 2021 off with a great lessening of stuff.  There will be two cars in the garage and a 'gym' area as well!