Putting Christmas Away

Now that Christmas, New Year's and Epiphany have come and gone, it's time to begin putting the decorations away for another year. Yesterday was a mild, 70-degree rare day in January and Norm got busy taking down the front porch decorations.

Traditional red and green look best on our traditional red brick house. We have become really fond of red bows and I should have picked up more in the after Christmas sales, but my clogged sinuses kept me indoors. Besides, it was really cold until Saturday, and after this afternoon, it will be cold again.

Last night we were under a tornado watch and there were some thunder storms in the wee hours this morning. About three weeks ago, all of this greenery was covered with snow and ice. As I tramped around looking for angles for these photos, I noticed that the daffodils are up about two inches tall in one of the front flower beds!

Christmas nostalgia makes me feel a little blue when I see a discarded evergreen tree on the curb the day after the holiday, along with all the Christmas trash. Now we can recycle the cardboard, the wrapping, and the tree, which is encouraging. Our decorations are "permanent" or "artificial" or "plastic" so what they lack in charm at least keeps them out of the landfill. We try to keep the 12 days of Christmas between Dec. 25 and Jan. 6, a custom we began when our work kept us totally busy up until Dec. 24, with little time to savor the holiday before it actually arrived.

For now the tree is still up, but some of the other decorations will soon be packed away. This year, the Santa collection decorated the mantel.










Over the years we have collected quite a few nativities. These were on top of Norm's family heirloom barrister bookcase.


The nativity that my mother bought in stages from the old Kress dime store (one shepherd, 29 cents) always adorns our blue china cabinet. The figures are more than 50 years old.


As the holidays end and the real work of living in 2008 begins, may we all find new ways to be creative, loving and peaceful. I failed to note a blogging milestone last time: the January 1 post was the 100th since I began Home Stories in August of 2006. Thanks to all of you who are reading, I'll continue to chronicle our semi-retired life!

Happy New Year

We welcomed 2008 by clanging a front porch dinner bell into the bitter north wind at midnight, and Judi yelling "Whooo... Pig.. Sooie" at the top of her lungs. Poor Sam, who has been staying with us since Dec. 27 while Doug and Matt are in Chicago, didn't know what to think.

This afternoon it was getting so cold (supposed to be 12 tonight with a -5 wind chill) that Judi got out a family heirloom for Sam to model. This hand knit sweater was made by Judi's Aunt Eadie sometime in the 1950s for Rags (1953-1969), Judi's first dog. It was later worn by Sandy (1969-1986) and Suzie (1986-1995) and it has the holes to show for it. Since Sam now lives in Sunny South Florida, he probably will only model this sweater on rare trips North in winter. Actually Sam (age 4-1/2) has enough wooly fur that he doesn't really need a sweater even in cold winds like the ones we are having this New Year's.

Our Christmas was quiet, with Judi succumbing to a sinus infection that kept her down all week and Norm preoccupied with the sermon he would preach at our church on Dec. 30 to give the pastor a longer holiday vacation. We did enjoy dinner with the Myerses, Doug and Matt on Christmas Eve. We are still preparing the holiday letter and it should be in the mail by this weekend. We're just running a little slow this year. May 2008 be good to us all.