Packed Up

I bet you didn't think you'd see Christmas pictures here today....
I de-Christmased the house yesterday.

I usually find that I do this task by myself. Its easier, and harder that way. Easier in that there is nobody underfoot, pulling things out as I try to put away. Harder that it seems like such a lonely and melancholy task to do by oneself. And I couldn't get Joni Mitchell's "River" out of my head- which I also think is rather lonley and melancholy. "Its coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees- they're putting up reindeer- singing songs of joy and peace- Oh I wish I had a river, I could skate away on...Oh I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly- I wish I had a river I could skate away on...."

Packing everything neatly away. Boxing up decorations and drawings- carols and cards, merriment and memories- all fitting tidily into cartons that get carted off to a corner of the attic- where they all have no choice but to wait patiently until next season.


I found myself talking to my Christmas tree. I kept saying thank you to it as I gingerly pulled off all of the baubles, and strings of lights. Thank you for being so pretty. Thank you for letting us have you in our house. Thank you for being our Merry Christmas Tree....

And now that everything is packed away -The house feels so empty. It seems that there has been some sort of decoration all over our house since the beginning of October, and now- its bare. Maybe that is January; slightly bare. January the clean, fresh start. The removal of the old- the starting of new.
February is just around the corner...
I think I'll start decorating for Valentine's Day.