…the Christmas decorations have been taken down and put away till next year. They only made it till about the tenth day. In anticipation of an unusually wet weekend in SoCal, we decided to go ahead and dismantle everything and pack it up on Friday, so we wouldn’t be slogging back and forth to our outdoor storage unit in the rain.
I don’t seem to be having much of a post-holiday letdown this year – not that I’m complaining. It’s possible it won’t kick in until after I return to work full-time on Monday, though. I worked half-days for the the three days after Christmas and hadn’t intended on a full week off, but an unexpected event in the extended family (subject of another post this week) prompted a couple of additional vacation days after New Year’s. I don’t usually mind working during the Christmas and New Year’s weeks – schools are out and a lot of people are on vacation, so it’s some of the best commuting time of the year, and it’s a shame to waste that! All the same, though, I’m not sorry to have had the break, especially with the year-end workload awaiting me.
I don’t know how much of the fact that this felt like a pretty laid-back holiday should be attributed to my inclination to emphasize the “Twelve Days of Christmas” this year, and not get all caught up in having everything “done” as of December 25th – but it was a pretty laid-back holiday. I think that hosting the festivities as opposed to traveling probably helped a lot; more work, sure, but also more control over carrying out the plans, and that’s normally a less-stressful place for me to be. The days following Christmas itself were pleasant, relaxing, and festive, and certainly felt like holiday time.
I don’t know whether we’ll be planning on Chris spending next Christmas out here – assuming he and Jes are still together then, she may want to spend it with her family in New England – but for some reason I didn’t feel compelled to make a huge thing out of “this might be the last Christmas all together” with him, and I’m actually glad about that. I’m glad we finally did get to meet his girlfriend; they seem very well-matched, and she does not take any crap from him – and he seems to like it that way. (And having known my son for more than 23 years, I am quite aware of the level of crap he is capable of providing…) I like the two of them together, and I really hope he doesn’t mess it up. I’m still in no hurry to see their status as a couple change to something more “official,” but I didn’t get the sense that they are, either.
The best Christmas gift a parent can get: seeing your kids happy.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I never did put up Christmas decorations other than my husband putting up the tree and lights on the tree. And now the tree is still up, lights included. Some of the lower branches are sitting on the floor thanks to my cat. I guess he thinks it is time to take down the tree. 🙂
Literary Feline – The cat may indeed be trying to tell you something. I hope it’s an artificial tree that he’s dismantling! I think those are safer with pets. Dogs might get rather confused by the smell of a live tree inside the house, and knowing what dogs like to do with trees…