The Year of Entropy, Part I -- The Attack of Christmas

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  (Sure, sure, I'm a few days late.  I woke up this morning feeling like it was Monday. I know that's not a good sign for the rest of the day, but it's a good excuse for a late blog.)

Entropy and Chaos came for Christmas and Entropy has now effectively moved in. You should be receiving a change of address cards from him soon, and  I don't see us successfully kicking him out in all of 2011.  (But I sure as heck am going to try.)

See, it all started when DH and I struck a deal. The house would be spotless by Christmas morning (his part of the deal), and then I wouldn't bug anyone else about cleaning until after New Year (my part of the deal).  This was a very Faustian bargain, without all the upside.   According to Entropy, our deal was an open invitation to take up residence, and he accepted immediately on behalf of himself and Chaos. Chaos arrived quickly, with the wrapping paper on the floor on Christmas morning, but for the most part, he has retreated to the basement. Entropy, however, is living large in the family room, playing with the toys, eating the food, and in general making a pest of himself.

Before he got so bold, I honestly missed Entropy's arrival. I thought it was just Chaos roaming free, as so often happens at the holidays. You know -- small children, wrapped presents, singing holiday decorations -- it's a great big party of Chaos. I figured, if the house was spotless on Christmas morning, then except for finding a place to put all the new toys and games that arrived, we shouldn't have all that much to do to keep the place looking nice. Granted, things weren't tidying up quite as quickly as I thought they should as the day progressed, but I had made a deal -- no harping on the mess until 2011.  I kept my peace and tried to focus on the great family affair of holiday-gathering.

So, in the middle of all the excitment, I somehow missed the exact moment when the dishes began multiplying in the sink and the laundry began breeding in the basket. I failed to notice that the number of mismated socks was increasing to an improbable number (how can you have more mismated single socks than you had pairs to begin with?). Of course, since DH will do all laundry when necessary except match and fold socks, I didn't think too much at first about the increasing pile of footwear growing on top of the dryer. Only when I went to mate the little suckers myself did I realize we had some sort of extra-dimensional problem.

As I began "undecking" the halls, I could not figure out why it was taking more days to "undo" than to "do." I also could not figure out how there were now more ornaments than could possibly fit into all of these boxes, and we didn't even buy any new ones.  Then I figured it out.  That was Entropy hanging out there on the couch.  I thought it was Uncle Steve. 

Every time I turn around, there is another holiday decoration that managed to hide itself while we were packing things way. I'm sure we will keep finding them until February at this rate. Hopefully they will be the red ones, becaue at least that color goes well with Valentine's Day.  With luck, though ...

Yeah. I have a feeling that Entropy has really got my number this year.  Take a look.  What do you think?