Since I am such a Christmas-aholic, taking down Christmas is one of my least favorite things to do. Growing up, New Year’s Day was my most disliked day of the year, because it was the day that everything Christmas was taken down, packed up, and put away. I’d mope around all day, because the house looked so barren.
When I became an adult, with a house of my own, I decided I wanted to keep my Christmas tree up until Epiphany. Drew agreed, knowing that sitting by the lit up Christmas tree made me so happy.
Now, even I will agree that those icicle lights hanging off my neighbor’s house in February is just plain tacky. I’m a little ashamed of the year that Drew and I left the tree up until February. When we were trying to decide whether to take it down or simply hang little hearts on it, I knew it was time. We didn’t leave it there intentionally. We simply got consumed by life and had no time to get the thing down. Good thing it was a fake tree. Since then, I’ve been determined to get the decorations down as close to Epiphany as possible.
I had every intention of getting the tree down this weekend. I swear. On Saturday, I was ready to break out the bins and the broom and get the living room tidied up. But then Drew found a car in Valdosta that was exactly what we were looking for (we’ve been looking to replace my car, as it’s been breaking apart little by little and I’m convinced it will implode at any moment). We decided to take a drive, loved the car, and ended up buying it. Yay for us, but that made for a late night, and by the time we got home, I didn’t have any energy to tackle the tree.
Sunday, we spent all day at a friend’s house for her “coming out” party. She is bravely tackling cancer, and undergoing chemo. When her hair began to fall out, she decided it was time to shave it all off. We all gathered and watched as she sat in the barber’s chair and let all her hair be shaved off with a huge smile on her face. We cheered her on, other friend’s shaved their heads in honor of her, and we laughed at the mohawks and other fun hairstyles that were created. We tried on wigs and hats and even blew off fireworks. Great day, but again, we didn’t get home until late.
To find this.
Our tree bit the dust. Drew almost tripped over it as we came in the door, commenting, “What the hell…” I looked at him and said, “We don’t even have a cat.”
Upon further investigation we discovered one of the snap on legs had simply snapped off. It decided it was done with it’s service for the year. And although it was late and I was tired, I set to taking the ornaments off and un-decorating the tree. Drew had to hold it up so I could get the lights off. Then he chucked it out the front door, proclaiming, “Piece of crap!”
Sadly, there was one casualty.
One of my treasured, handmade, porcelain ornaments from my Aunt Char was beheaded. This one is from 1985 and has hung on every tree since then. Luckily, it was a clean break, and I think with a little super glue, she’ll be good as new. I breathed a sigh of relief to see that the other porcelain ornaments had been hung on the side opposite of the fall, and were thus cushioned by fake pine tree limbs.
Luke Skywalker did fall out of his legs, but it appears that he slides right back in his boots. Drew was relieved.
So Christmas is officially packed up and put away… aside from the odds and ends I keep finding. I have a feeling I’ll be repacking the totes to make everything fit this weekend.
After the “trauma” from last night, I did get a good laugh last night as I revisited with these guys.
