Took down the ornaments, packing them away softly in a yellow plastic bin that once held a Boston neighbor's cat litter. The older grey bin once held my brother's bulk laundry detergent, eventually started to split. I have no need to find anything purpose built nor festive to store my shiny finery. All wrapped with clean leftovers from work, green and white wraps once held sterile supplies, lint free, soft and durable.
D suggested I keep the lights up a bit longer, so the tree still sits on the barrel, gleaming colorfully. This is atypical, he's not usually one to actively promote holiday lights, although he is politely appreciative of my efforts and effect. He'll help me pack up at the end of the season. It's just mostly my thing, which is fine. This year, he's enjoying the illumination on his own behalf as well, it seems.
No snow, mucky atmosphere, and a yuletide of minimal expectation seem to be combining to make us happy to let the sparkle linger a little longer. The low key celebrations were, I should clarify, exactly what we wanted. A few days off together, having a few people over a couple of those days, a moderate loosening of purse-strings, quite enough for two quiet people. It does leave us without the emotional exhaustion that would have us giving the garlands the bums rush. Such a pleasant guest this year, we don't mind if it stays an extra week or so.
Off to hibernate.
2 comments:
Our tree is still up, but other various household decorations are coming down piece-meal. Hopefully in the next week or two we'll start the tree take down, though my wife likes to have it up longer than I do, so we'll have to see about that.
ours is still up because i didn't have time to take it down before our family trip to cuba. now it sits here, forlorn, because since sunday (we got back saturday) both of us have been sick as dogs.
our city, a winter city without question, has started encouraging people to leave their lights up longer this year, and so the balcony lights will stay. possibly all year - nothing wrong with a little twinkle on a summer eve.
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