Two Weeks Late

Our last day of school before the Winter Break was a normal early-out Friday schedule on the 21st, with the first day of no school being Christmas Eve.  We then had two full weeks off of school, with the first day back to school on Monday.  Since Randy started his vacation on the 18th, and because he had to go back to work before the kids went back to school, I put off putting away Christmas until everyone went back to their own schedules so we could spend as much time together as possible doing not-working stuff.

I had every intention of doing it on Monday.  But I must have been coming off a pretty high {insert any number of things here}, so I stayed most of the day in my warm, comfortable bed, reading and napping.  I had every intention of doing it on Tuesday.  But I got to play with my favorite 5-year old boy for an hour, and then I planned to shower and get ready to take a friend out to lunch for her birthday.  Instead, I got back into my warm bed, read the last few chapters of my book from the previous day, donned makeup and a hat, and took my friend to lunch.  I am useless for anything big after noon, being most productive first thing in the morning, so you can bet I got back in bed when I got home from lunch and took a nap.  

I had every intention of putting Christmas away yesterday... and I did!  5 hours later, with the Christmas tree disassembled but not fitting into the box despite my sweaty, best efforts, I was questioning why it felt so right to be lazy with my family over the holiday.  Who cares about Canada and fun train museums when the Christmas tree is still standing?  Snow activities?  Nope, the halls are still decked with balls of holly-- get to work!  Not only was it a full two weeks past when I usually have Christmas put away, which made me feel a weird sort of anxiety guilt, but I have never felt such loathing for my Christmas tree as I did in those 45 minutes of trying to wrestle the prickly branches into a tightly bound, bigger than my arm circumference, pear-shaped mass of too heavy for me to put into the box myself, what were you thinking, rage-inducing madness.  I took the box back into the garage, hefted the three {choice word} sections, and chucked them next to the box.  I don't care that I have to park my car on the driveway, I cannot get that tree in that box!   I now know I have been taking Randy for granted when it comes to how easy it's been in years past to put the Christmas tree away.

Two lessons that I've learned for future Christmases:

1) Christmas Day is for time spent at home, not taking the kids away from their new toys, even if the activity is family-based togetherness.

2) Christmas trees should be purchased each year to prevent thoughts of bonfires in the living room.