A  Dr. Seuss Day

After the holidays does your house look like Thing One and Thing Two have paid you a visit?  After all the entertaining do you wish you could hire someone to take down the tree, put the decorations away, remove the  chocolate from the table cloth and suck the glitter out of the carpet?  You’re not alone!  Thank goodness we live in the northern hemisphere!  The holiday season is followed by the month of January and we have many cold, snowy days to pick up the house. 

I admit that I remember running wild with the cousins at the holiday gatherings, hiding in the closets, running around the basement, creating puppet shows for the aunts and uncles.  Sure, lingonberries spilled on the table cloth but we didn’t like them anyway.  Gifts were unwrapped and the paper and ribbons adorned the room.  It was great!  The grownups finally kicked us out of the house.  They told us to go sledding or skating for awhile to get the wiggles out.  That worked for the time being but the pile of snow pants, boots, mittens, hats and jackets that were left on the floor in addition to the melting snow was a bit overwhelming.  Some years the adults bundled us up and took us downtown Minneapolis to see the magical windows in the Dayton’s department store.  I’m dating myself I guess!  It got us out of the house so the meal could be made or cleaned up, whichever the case may be.  Did I mention there were 21 cousins in all?  It was a busy place, but we loved every minute.

Because of these memories, I can’t complain about the mess left after the holidays.  It’s proof that we had a good time.  Thing One and Thing Two did a number on the house, as always, but I found hope in Dr. Seuss’s book, “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.”  Perhaps you’re read it.  

When “Sally and I”  were left at home to shovel the walk, Cat in the Hat showed up, entered their house and proceeded to eat cake in the bathtub, leaving a red ring in the tub.  He wiped it up with mother’s white dress, then wiped red on the wall, then on Father’s $10 shoes, and on and on it goes!  You get the picture.  Eventually guilt overcomes Cat in the Hat and he brings in friends to help clean up the mess.  One by one he brings out Little Cats A, B, C, D, E, F, ………..all the way up to Little Cats X and Y.  Still there is a mess!  The red is now outside on the snow.  Enter Little Cat Z with something called Voom.

Now, don’t ask me what Voom is.

I never will know.

But, boy!  Let me tell you

It DOES clean up the snow! 

There you have it!  Forget what you heard on social media.  Ignore the adds on TV.  Get Voom by Dr. Suess and all your cleaning problems will be solved.  That’s my advice for 2019.

Happy New Year!