Six Weeks Later....

..the Christmas decor is put away. 

Unusual year this has been!  Decor was up on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  That was earlier than usual.  Usually it is a hit and miss type of thing with Gary putting up the tree itself while I am gone, then I put the decorations on and try to finish everything else throughout the next week.  This year it was all done in a day or two.  Why?  Retirement!

Our tradition with decor is from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.  After we hosted the family New Year's Day dinner of pork and sauerkraut, it was time to put away the gifts and take down everything, straighten the house, and be ready for school to start again in a day or two.  All of that changed for several reasons - the girls were married and not living at home anymore.  Ann and Bud were gone, Mike was gone, and we drifted away from the pork and sauerkraut dinner for everyone.   Then Dad died on New Year's Eve morning and none of us were here.  After that Karen, Clay, Gary, and I began our annual pilgrimage to Gatlinburg for the NYEve holiday.  Also the Ivy Tech schedule was different than the West Central schedule so we could play with that a little bit.

This year the tree coming down was postponed until Monday, January 16.    Why?  We were home less than a day between the Christmas celebrations and leaving for the Tennessee trip.  Then when we returned home, I was plagued with welts and red patches on my legs and arms which appeared beginning on Friday of the trip.  A trip to Urgent Care, then medication to take, and ointment to apply was the remedy for the unknown cause of the welts.  Following that day was a babysitting day with the kiddos, then the call came from Greta about Mom's emergency surgery and we all left for Ohio, expecting to attend a funeral.  When Gary and I returned after staying in Wooster for nearly a week, we spent the next two nights with Hilary and Blaine so we could stay with the little kids while they took Landon to a wrestling meet at Purdue (on Friday night) and so they could take Landon and his five friends to the Elite Air and Pizza Hut for his friends birthday party.  Finally the time came for us to just stay home and take care of the de-decorating.

After spending a few hours removing ornaments, gathering up sowmen and Santas and other decor, putting away the Willow Tree nativity, taking Christmas plaques off the walls and replacing the with the usual items, I know these things.

One is - I have too much Christmas decor.  There is absolutely no way I can use all of it.  Some of it is shabby. Other things are outdated.  At any rate there is just too much of it.  I need to go through it and sort out what I won't use again and get rid of it.  Really.

Two is - as nice as the house looks for Christmas, it is nice to have it back to rights again. I found myself sighing and thinking 'well, we don't have to do this for another 11 months, well 10 1/2 now.'  I always forget where I had things placed, and I like the 'look' that was in the rooms prior to Christmas that doesn't seem to be re-captured.  I like the homeyness of the house without the decor.

Three is - I have too much stuff!  Another item on the to-do list needs to be to sort through all of the knick knacky stuff and thin it out also. It is just too much. 

Four is - Christmas decor is magical during the holidays, but a week or so after and that magic disappears.  The tree lit last night just didn't seem as beautiful as it did two weeks ago.    Same tree. Same lights. Same ornaments. Same darkenss.  Different feeling.  It was time for it to come down.

Next year we will do it all again.  I hope that sometime between now and then I can do the 'weeding out' of decorations and ornaments and such.  Many reasons for that, but it has to be done, nonetheless.

Back to normal, once again!