undecking day

as the holidays come to a close, we have one more mcnatt family tradition to squeeze in. i call it "undecking day." it is the day when the entire family pitches in to undeck our halls of all that accumulated Christmas stuff. because i insist on real greenery in my merry making it is literally a time to even undeck the halls of boughs of holly. fa-la-la-la-mess! nature and her needles everywhere. with two live trees in our house and real garland draped across every conceivable surface, we will live with an army of pine well into spring. last year, in one of my more resourceful moments, i employed the use of my handy leaf blower inside the house. a good idea, but i would suggest two points of caution: 1. use only electric - the gasoline smell is entirely different indoors - and. 2. don't for one minute entertain the idea of a 12 year old boy-or any boy, for that matter-assisting with this. other than those two things, and a minor mishap with a lamp, it really was brilliantly fast and efficient.

sappy sentimentalist that i am, i do prove true to form and become a little depressed with the arrival of this day. between the singing of auld lang syne and the removal of the candles from our front windows, a spirit of melancholy often settles around me like a thin blanket. this is true. with the extinction of the tree and garland lights, our house seems a bit darker, even a bit duller. the metallic ribbon is wound back onto spools, the glass ornaments carefully wrapped in december's newspaper and the santa clauses tucked securely back into their bulging crates. no longer welcoming, the tired and fire-hazardous wreath is dismissed from our front door and our home is stripped of festivity and prepared for routine and normalcy once again. the house quietly whispers, "time to get on." it is time to rest from celebrations and time to re-enter the world of our responsibilities. time for the sugar plums to stop dancing in our heads and time for all of us (okay, me) to start exercising in the gym.
and though i will miss staring into the christmas tree lights at the close of each evening, i am on board with this transformation. it is time. i once had a conversation with one of my children - really can't remember just who it was - about why having Christmas all year long wouldn't be such a good thing. this child - whoever it was - never quite bought my argument. but it is true. a year long Christmas would eventually lose its sparkle and most assuredly be the demise of most mothers. in plain terms, it would kill us. all this magic making and wish fulfilling comes with a cost. funny thing, we don't even get full credit. i remember one of the kids saying to me years ago, "why are you so tired mom? doesn't santa claus do all the work?" so far, that is the best argument i have come across for spilling the beans on santa. so, it is not without some sense of relief that i wisk my family into this day of undecking.
i am always delighted when shopping in target right after the holidays (please refrain from asking why in the world i am even in target after the holidays). have you noticed the colossal display of bins and crates come december 26th? the exhausted elves must work all of Christmas night transforming those must-have-last-minute-items and the all-important-stocking-stuffers into storage units of every size, shape and color. the organizer in me gets kind of excited when i pause at this aisle. really. i know that is weird to admit, but it just oozes order and control. i find myself breathless and a bit weak in the knees as i consider the countless possibilities just waiting within the messy walls of my home. i even dreamt once of my storage room lined with perfectly matching, evenly spaced, and expertly labled crates. "oh, you are looking for that beaded reindeer?" i say to my storage room visitor. "yes, here it is," i reply, efficiently consulting my Christmas clipboard and color-coded flowchart, "3rd box to the left." oh the things of which we mother's dream! such fantasy. such unbridled passion for plans and process...for peace. should i even admit how excited a well appointed kitchen drawer or an alphabetized game closet can make me? i can hardly continue to write...
anyway, back to undecking day: i will include pictures from last year's grand event. we do our best to make it fun. in true new year's spirit we embrace Out With the Old... we re-organize and re-order. and there is something in that which brings a tiny piece of peace to our otherwise chaotic home. i have come dangerously close to writing a post-holiday Christmas carol with the line, "a place for everything and everything in its place." that is definitely something which would bring Joy To The (my) World! but tell me when did the restoration of our homes and bodies go from cliche to demanding. excerising regularly. organizing everything. eating next to nothing. and this just days after surviving the whirling dervish of december. with the changing of the calendar year, i, admittidly, will succumb to my passion for the gigantic clear crates from target, bringing half a dozen home. in the midst of my good intentions and fruitless search for my label maker, the children will, most likely, pilfer these bins for their own irregular practices. they will be turned over for a tea party table, or manipulated into a vehicle for pulling one another wildly around the house...the lids will become war shields or sleds and will, undoubtedly, break before they make it to my capricious storage room shelves.
so january 2nd or 3rd or 4th will arrive. a little darker. a little duller. a little cleaner. the fray of transition will eventually subside. we will reclaim our homes and renew our resolutions. we will stop eating so recklessly and begin sleeping more regularly. like it or not, we will resume our routines. and we will know there are seasons for merry and bright and their are seasons for quiet and right. there is a time to deck and a time to undeck. and for that we are thankful. i will, most assuredly, continue to find pine needles in april and i am certain at least one Christmas ornament will, at some point, roll out from underneath the couch. and when it does, i will happily march to the basement, throw open wide the storage room door and toss it into the anarchy and jumble of a lidless, plastic bin resting precariously on an unlabled shelf. and i will make plans to organize it all... sometime in july.