Goodbye Christmas

We took down our Christmas tree today- this is the earliest it's ever happened in our house. :( We never take ours down until Epiphany or at least the weekend after New Years, just depending on our tree. This year's tree was DEAD though, and we don't want to risk a fire, so we went ahead and just did it. The house looks so empty now where the tree and our creches were!!! Even Barbara was crying today because she doesn't want this time to end. I'm trying HARD to not go there because if Matthew's plans work out, we might not all be together next year for Christmas, and if we do he'll be a soldier. I'm very supportive of Matthew and his dream, but I cannot go too far down that road yet. It's going to hurt like crazy to send him off to enlist when we are at war. That's just a path I'm not going down until we know he's definitely in. Like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about that "tomorrow." That tomorrow is coming soon enough.

Tomorrow we'll put out the snowmen collection. We started doing that a couple years ago, and in this smaller home, it just works. There's not room for it and Christmas, and this way I can stretch out the "cheer" a little longer. I will take some photos to share tomorrow.

I can feel work lingering there in the background about to stick its ugly face "all up in my business." But for at least another day or two I'm going to ignore it the best I can and enjoy a couple more days of non-reality home with my family. This has sure been nice.

Tonight, Rob and Robert put up Barbara's ceiling fan and new fancy-dancy motion sensor switch. She'd been saying she wanted that for quite a while, so her electrician big brother bought her both for Christmas. He put in the switch and Rob helped him get the fan started. So when she comes home from work at McDonald's tonight she'll have a big surprise!

Well, I'm off to make up my grocery list now that my January menu is done! Then some stamping, some reading and some sleeping. Tomorrow is grocery day, bill day, and maybe a game with my family. Happy New Year's Eve Eve to you all!