We had such a great Christmas!  It was a little on the warm side but Mississippians know that's always a strong possibility.  We wouldn't know a white Christmas if it came up and slapped us in the face.  For some reason, it seems like the heat just creeps up on us at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas down here.  After a while, you just learn to steer the kids toward the more ventilated Halloween costumes, forget looking seasonal and just wear short sleeves to eat turkey at your grandma's, and always be ready to run the air conditioner if you plan on serving hot Christmas cider.  Mississippi holiday problems.  We've got 'em.   

Well, here we are in 2017.  You know, for a couple of months now, we've been able to use the holidays as the comfy cushion between us and almost everything.  Our front airbag, if you will.  "I'll start that after the holidays" and "I'm going to do better after the holidays."  Well, dang it, it's after the holidays now. 

I don't know about you but I enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Seriously, is there another week during the year that expects less from us?  We've all been walking around here in sweat pants for a week.  Watching football 7 hours a day.  Asking each other what day it is.  Eating like those people who are missing the part of the brain that tells them that they're full.  No, I don't believe there's another week on the calendar that gives us all a pass like that last week of the year does.  No one ever says, "Let's get started on that project on December 27th" or "Let's start going to the gym on the 29th."  Pshhh.  Nope, eating, spending, working, exercising-December has already been blown to smithereens so why not just see it all the way through?    

Of course, it takes a good week to recover from the category 3 storm which is Christmas.  No other day of the year blows through with such force and dumps a mountain of "debris" in the middle of your house.  You know that first day after Christmas when everyone has their own pile of opened gifts in the family room?  Most of the wrapping garbage has been bagged up but there are still straggling pieces of tissue paper and stray shirt box halves with that one remnant of wrapping paper still hanging on by the Scotch tape......all scattered between the mounds of new stuff.  A day or two later, the gifts may make their way to their respective rooms where they sit on the floor there for another couple of days and may look something like this.....
Eventually, someone has to bite the bullet and make room in the bloated closets for all this new stuff....and we all know who that person usually is. 

Then, there are things like this laying around.  Those unfulfilled Christmas aspirations.
I saw this beautiful Christmas puzzle in the store and had visions of us all in our Christmas pajamas sipping hot chocolate, watching Christmas movies and working on it together while engaging in meaningful conversation and sharing what was on our hearts.  I got the 1,000 piece.  I think we're more of a 500 piece family.  Especially when 800 of the 1,000 pieces make up the sky.......the solid colored purple/pink sky.  None of us signed up for that.  The only thing on our hearts that we wanted to share with each other was how the puzzle was stupid and how it made us want to throw something through a window.  So, if you're looking for a family who has the perseverance to see a difficult task to its end, don't stop here.  That sucker went back in the box and into the attic.  Maybe, one day, if we all simultaneously break both of our legs at once and that puzzle is the only option we have to fill our time, then we may get it back out.  Otherwise, it will be available at our next garage sale for a more committed family. 

And there are the decorations that everyone dreads taking down during that week.  If nothing else does, that alone justifies a little extra down time.  The needles.  The glitter.  The ornament hooks getting hung up in the vacuum.  I'm that person who is always itching to take it all down on Christmas night.  I know I've just appalled some of you, twelve days of Christmas people, but it's just how I am.  I usually refrain until the morning after but then it's got to go.  No one likes Christmas more than me but when it's over, it's over.  There's no sense in drawing out the after-Christmas letdown.  You just have to rip the Band-Aid off and face the task of trying to remember what went where.   

Yes, all good things must come to an end.  Our week of hiding is over.  We knew, eventually, we'd have to put on pants with zippers again.  Wear a bra.  Go back to earning money.  Eat dishes that don't contain cream cheese or heavy whipping cream.  Begin to exhibit some self-restraint.  Wake up at an hour when it's not a struggle to decide if we should have breakfast or lunch.  And, yes, shower before the six o'clock news.   

Because a new beginning is nigh and yoga pants aren't allowed at the office.  We have to get back up and face life again without all the twinkly lights, the Bing Crosby music, and the tins of goodies in the break room.  It's gonna hurt for a few days.  But, there's something wonderful about getting back to normal.  Christmas is all good and warm and fuzzy but normal is where most of life happens.  It'll be good to go back there for a while. Twinkly lights wouldn't seem near as pretty if they burned all year.


Whatever you said you were going to start after the holidays, I hope you get a jump on it today!