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!