So begins the holidays. Today is the calm before the storm. I say calm, but I am sure cooking, house cleaning and everything else that has to happen before people come to your home are going on. I know this is a generalization, but I think most of the stressing is going on by the woman, not the men. Men are cleaning off the dust on the big screen television and making sure there is enough beer in the refrigerator. Yes I do contribute to the cleaning, I am also available for store runs, getting pans down from high shelves and retrieving dishes and other essential from the storage places they are kept the rest of the year. Mostly I am keeping my head low and out of the kitchen as to not upset the delicate balance of what needs to get done. It is a good thing my wife has today off because it allows a little more time to get things started. It is always a lot more stressful to start all this the morning of the day. Even if we tried to plan ahead and maybe clean over the weekend before the house would somehow fall back into the same state over the three days so why even try to get a head start. So as I type this it is helping me look busy and is keeping me from possibly having to clean the pine needles out of the gutters or some other equally annoying task which I would have to do even though we are going to someone else’s house tomorrow.