January Blues

Today I took down all the rest of my Christmas decorations. The tree went out on New Year's Eve, since it was a real tree, and had completely died. Not just a little droopy - this was needles-turning-brown dead. I had already had the nostalgic moments of remembering how great this Christmas was and feeling sad that it was going to be another year before I could pull out these decorations again...or so I thought. But I seriously had sadness today as I put all the cute little snowmen in their bin, and wrapped up all my fragile nativity pieces. I even had my final listen to all the Christmas music in our house, and then reverently closed the last CD case for another 11 months. Now, I don't consider myself to be a hugely talented decorator. I have friends and family members who can make a room look like a million bucks just by adding a few candles and a shelf here and there, but I have not been blessed with that ability. However, I know my festive decorating. I love feeling like for one month of the year, my house is as cute as I can possibly make it. Maybe that's the reason why I'm so down this year - now my house looks like the never-ending snow drifts outside my window...plain. But, in the words of my ever optimistic Missy Mae, "That's ok if we have to take down the Christmas decorations, Mom. Then we can just make room for the Valentines decorations!"