Monday Smiles – 1/5/2015
Saturday morning, I took down the Christmas decorations. I took the holly and candles off the hearth, packed the wreaths from the front doors and my office window in their storage container … and I took down the tree, getting to revisit the memories in each ornament one more time. Muri’s snowmen, officially winter … not Christmas … decorations get to stay for a few more months. I put on my headphones and played my Christmas Playlist one last time as I worked. The passing of another year … along with the making of resolutions … always puts me in a pensive, philosophical mood and taking down the tree is a task perfectly matched to that mood. I am saying good-bye to an old year Such-As-It-Was and hello to a New Year Such-As-It-Will-Be. As much as I love the holidays, by the time they are over, I am ready to get back to my regular routine.
The least enjoyable part of taking down the decorations is boxing them up, loading them into my car and taking them to our storage bin. Packed to the ceiling, the bin usually requires some rearrangement, particularly if my wife, Muri’s, spring, summer and fall home accotraments are to be easily accessible when she wants them. As I was loading the car, our good friends, Ron and Kerry … our companions on our trip to Rome … called, hoping to make up for the holiday dinner we canceled because of illness before Christmas. We were able to get last minute reservations at Gulliver’s Restaurant in Irvine (impossible before New Years
Day) and I was delighted that their beautiful holiday decoration were still up. We had a delicious prime rib dinner with Gulliver’s signature Yorkshire pudding, creamed corn and spinach to the tune of non-stop conversation punctuated by frequent laughter. What a great way to start a year.
And today, 2015 actually begins for us. The year will have ups … the year will have downs. I’m ready. It’s Monday and I’m smiling.
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Older Eyes 
January 7, 2015 at 2:48 am
Happy New Year Older Eyes!
January 8, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Sorry I haven’t been around in a while…a long while, lol. Just saw this post of yours and enjoyed the picture you painted 🙂 I always love the start of the new year as well. I am remarried now and my husband and I celebrated Three Kings Day on the 6th, which was a fun new tradition. I ended up taking down our Christmas decorations the day after, which was nice because it felt like I got to have one last go of the holidays before cleaning it all up. Glad you’re doing well, and Happy New Year to you!
January 11, 2015 at 7:43 am
The way you describe undecorating the Christmas tree sounds so much more intentional than the way I do it. It always feels like a rush to do the decorating whenever I can squeeze in some time. It’s the same when it’s time to put it all away.
Find some time. Hurry up. Get it done!
You post made me wish that I would handle the decoration duties more like you do. And then it made me think that I could handle many things in life more intentionally. A belated resolution, maybe …