Sometimes I decide that cleanliness in my house isn’t all that important.  My dog likes having little mini versions of himself rolling across the floor in the form of tumbleweed, right?  Right.  So as long as I don’t care, we’re all happy.

Then after a few weeks of that philosophy, I realize that other people might see the wreck that has become my home, and it becomes necessary to defeat the dust bunny army that has formed in my living room.  (They start off as friendly critters, but as soon as they see the vacuum cleaner, all pretenses of friendliness are dropped.)

As I was looking for a picture to illustrate yesterday’s epic battle against the dust bunnies, I came across something wonderful on Flickr.  Let me introduce you to Shaun:

Shaun was part of the photographer’s 365 set (365 days of taking pictures on a certain theme or just of anything, in this case, the theme being Shaun).  First, Shaun is demonstrating what I spent a fair bit of time doing yesterday–washing dishes.  That was post-dust-bunny-massacre and pre-laundry.

Second, Shaun is thinking about something that popped into my head unseasonably.  Christmas.  I love Christmas.  It’s my favorite holiday.  It’s meaningful, historic, family oriented, includes good food and corny movies, and everybody can celebrate it.  Even if you can’t get on board with the Jesus thing, there’s still the crispness in the air, warm apple cider, and Santa and elves and such.  I wouldn’t love it as much if it were just Santa and elves, but hey, lots of people are really into the jolly guy with the whiskers and the red suit.

Every year, I get a little nostalgic for Christmases past smack dab in the middle of summer.  Then I remember that it’s only 5 or 6 months until another Christmas.  Whoever designed this whole 12-month thing was genius.