Tomorrow, Tomorrow, You're Always A Day Away

We made it to the 8th night with presents every night and not a few doughnuts.

It all started about 10 days ago on a Wednesday evening when I was planning how I would come home from work on Thursday and get the apartment ready for my Mum's visit. There I was sitting in a complete mess, pans and dishes left over from a pancake supper all over the kitchen, DD's room would need clearing out and the sheets changed for Mum, the bathrooms needed cleaning, my grading and both our school books were all over the living room. I'd let things slide for a couple of weeks in the manic run up to the end of term at school with parents' meetings (mine and DD's), school concerts and Hanukkah parties.

I was zonked, there was no way I was going to make a start on that Wednesday evening. I reckoned I would have a good four hours to blitz the place after school on Thursday. And then the phone rang. It was the driver I'd booked to meet Mum at the airport. He told me she'd just rung to say she had landed. Rather than wait for him to drive from Jerusalem to pick her up, she said she'd just take a taxi from the airport. I called my nephew in London to check that the information was correct. It was. I had got the day wrong.

I had one hour. DD helped me tidy, dust, sweep and change the sheets in her bedroom. She kept saying, "look at your face Mummy, you look like you're in shock!" I cleaned the toilets, wiped over the basins and mirrors with a wet-wipe, and swept the bathroom floors before going over them with a damp cloth. I was half way through the kitchen detritus when she called to say she was downstairs. (Lucky we booked the taxi that she didn't take or we'd have had no notice at all!)

And here I am on January 1st 2017 still not with the programme. We've had a busy 10 days and it's not over yet. We went to a Christmas concert in the Old City, we went to friends for a Hanukkah party, we had a dinner party here for some friends from London that Mum knows, we had another party here for DD's birthday, we went to the theatre to see Annie, and we went out for dinner on Shabbat. There are only eight days of Hanukkah and we were exhausted by the end.

My not eating sugar went out the window and I had big plans to start again with the New Year. But Mum is still here and the fridge is still full of leftovers. School starts again tomorrow and I've not done any of the projects I'd planned for this holiday - sorting out my photos, sorting and filing great piles of papers, clearing and cleaning the balcony, organizing and decluttering in the hope of getting rid of some more bulky furniture that we shouldn't need, etc, etc, etc....

I've been reading posts on other blogs with the theme of 'bring it on 2017, I'm ready for you!' Well not me. Not quite. Tomorrow maybe. For tonight I'm finishing off the wine and doughnuts and wishing we had another few days of holiday.