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The chimney sweep arrived yesterday to insure I wouldn’t burn down the house. My brother-in-law, Rich claims that if you burn your fire really hot, you don’t ever need to clean the chimney. I’m quite certain that this philosophy works well for Rich, but I figured I better not chance it. The chimney sweep cleaned the chimney and the stove, put a cap on the chimney and closed the downstairs damper. He had to sell me on the need for a cap, so he kindly explained all the reasons why I should have one (birds, rain, dead animals). I think it was the dead animals that convinced me. (I wonder how Santa will get past the cap.) I tried to pretend I knew all about chimneys, just like I know all about pellet stoves. It’s easy to pretend when I keep my mouth shut and don’t ask questions like…”Why do you need a damper? How do you know if the damper’s open or closed?” Some things are best googled, but then google keeps forever track of your ignorance. Now my chimney is cleaned to go along with my clean gutters. A few weeks ago, I was laying flat on the roof of the sunroom pulling debris from the gutters. Josiah looked out the upstairs window at me and said, “They should have a show called extreme cleaning.” I used a ladder to clean the gutters on the front of the house and for the gutter in between the sunroom and the garage, I hung out of my upstairs window with a broom. The back of the garage thwarted me, however. Either I or the ladder was a foot too short. You can keep your opinion on that to yourself. I could have climbed up onto the garage roof from the front and walked over the peak to the back, but the garage roof is a bit steeper than the sunroom roof. I stood on the ladder thinking about it for a few moments while images of me falling off the roof filled my head. In the end, I decided a clogged gutter wasn’t worth a broken leg. It had been a bit of a chore for Josiah and I to drag the ladder through the hedge at the front of the house for gutter cleaning, so I decided to cheat on the Christmas lights. Gabe and I wrapped the lights around the porch rail instead of hanging them from the gutters. I am quite certain that next year that will not be an acceptable option for my dear husband. He so loves to hang Christmas lights. They put him in such a Holly Jolly mood. The kids and I also managed to bring a tree home and set it up. It’s amazing how good a tree looks when you can hang ornaments on the lower half. Between babies and cats, you forget what a fully decorated tree looks like. So, I’m almost ready for Christmas. My brother, Mike and his family will soon be arriving to spend Christmas with us. He claims that it is ok to just turn the rugs over for them. So, although my house may be a complete mess, I’ll have a clean chimney and almost all clean gutters to show him. I’m really looking forward to spending time with my brother Mike. It’s always nice to have family visit, especially when they happen to be a foot taller than me.