to sit on my arse on the sofa on MN rather than start putting up the last decorations and cards....

[BaroqinAroundTheChristmasTree]

until my older DS's stop bickering and moaning and actually tidy up some of their mess so that I can get them up.

I hate ladders, but they love the decorations and I'll go up the sodding ladder to put the decorations up. But they KNOW that I'll only do it if the house is tidy enough for me to move the ladder around without falling arse over tit with it.

They're being lazy little sods (have spent the entire morning playing doing whatever they wanted so it's not like I've been asking the to do it all day). And they're not daft - they understand that I am not doing anything right now because I will be doing a lot of work to finish off the Christmas decorating once they're done.

It'll only take them 1/2 (max) to make it look nice if they could actually be bothered.........

YANBU. Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean that we have to be full of good cheer

well I've just given them another lecture and stressed the point again and they appear to be moving around moving objects to where they should be......

we have progress......(I'm now hoping they don't finish sorting it before this snow shower stops as I need to go out to the outhouse at the bottom of the garden to get the ladder

I'll have plenty of good cheer once they've made an effort (which they are now doing and actually enjoying themselves) and we can start having fun battling with strings of lights and drawing pins in ceilings