X: Xanadu

Welcome to my last post of the A-Z Challenge! Can you tell I was struggling with coming up with an X-word? I learned from my search in the dictionary that this would have been a really easy post had our blog been science-themed. Maybe the other housewives would be willing to become organic chemists with me for next year...

The X-word I settled on to go with my watering post yesterday is Xanadu! For those of you without a dictionary handy, Dictionary.com defines it as:

Xanadu
[zan-uh-doo, -dyoo]
noun
1. a place of great beauty, luxury, and contentment.

Xanadu is essentially what I'm sweating my butt off (metaphorically only; there's still lots of butt there) to create while I stand outside watering my lawn every night. Our garden, despite my grumbling, is a huge source of pleasure and contentment for me. On nice days nothing relaxes me more than sitting outside and watching the dragonflies and bees, the birds at the feeders, the cat lounging on my marigolds...

And it all sounds so much swankier if I call my garden Xanadu, doesn't it? Xanadu is the kind of place where I picture reclining with peeled grapes, sparkling wine (with actual corks to pop, no less), koi ponds, and carefully sculpted waterfalls tended by skilled gardeners.... and I wouldn't complain if they were carefully sculpted, too.

Meet Princess Lily Butt. She's confused by the term "flower bed..."

So maybe if I think of it likes this, watering the flowers isn't such a bad chore after all. Right? But gardens and the outdoors aren't everyone's cup of tea. What's your own personal Xanadu at your home?