Can We Talk 2

Putting Away Christmas

         We're not quite done with Christmas at church, but at home we are. I put away all of the Christmas dishes and mugs today. We spent half a day un-decorating the tree, the mantle, the windows, the foyer, the staircase, and all the knickknacks around the family room. Whew. That's only the lower floor. The tree is boxed and ready to go into the garage attic. The other boxes are taped and read to come upstairs and be lifted into the main attic.

         So tomorrow, I face the living room and dining room. We have animated figurines which are rather large, so they have their own boxes. I will have to go up into our Arctic attic to find the right boxes and bring them down. It shouldn't take quite so long. Now all the red hand towels and special kitchen accessories I had already washed and put away. I don't want to wash them too often and have them fade.

         It did take longer to put it all up, but taking it down is sort of sad. I linger over it and remember more of when and where we got them. What was my mother's favorite. What belonged to my late brother. And seeing it go makes me feel like I didn't just sit and enjoy it more. I did carry my coffee down there this morning and just look at everything before tackling it. There is always so much to do before Christmas, that even as low stress as this year's holiday was for me, I still didn't take much quiet time or listen to music. So I did have a half hour today by myself just to enjoy how pretty it was.

         As soon as my brother comes to help me haul the boxes up the folding ladder into the attic, it will all be put away for another year. Another ten months or so will be pass without remembering how much money went into all that decor over the decades or how many special memories are triggered by them. It seems a shame to leave them up such a short time. I do know two people who have spectacular tress, and they leave them up all year long. I might get a little callous and not appreciate it so much if I did that.

                   Until November, 2018, it's almost done.