Today we are “De-Christmas-ing.” I got that word from a good friend of ours at church who put all their Christmas decorations away yesterday, and reported about it on Facebook. I decided that’s a pretty good term. I like Christmas decorations, and enjoy putting them out. But after Christmas is over, I am pretty much ready to get the house back to normal. In the days leading up to Christmas, I have presents hidden all over my closet for Cheryl & the kids: underneath and behind my suits, stuffed under my socks in the drawer, and just covered up by coats against the wall in my side of the closet. It is kind of nice to get those spaces back! And honestly I just like the way our home is set up, so I enjoy getting it back to “normal”.

Perhaps a word on why we are doing this today. This week leading up to New Year’s Eve (New Year’s Eve around our house is better known as Cheryl’s birthday) has been dubbed by my wife as “Cheryl’s birthday week”. She got this idea of a whole birthday week from a fellow blogger-ette who just had her birthday. I think we are going to have to cancel that subscription! 😉 I have been served notice that I am under indentures to do whatever she bids this entire week. Yesterday that included driving her to Shreveport to see the Independence Bowl, and missing the opening kickoff for the game by taking her to an antique shop! We probably have several such trips in store for the next few days. But today she wanted to get the house put back in order so that we could enjoy the rest of the week in a house that was clean, and had all the Christmas ornaments put up. After the long drive we had to Shreveport yesterday, I was amenable to it, so after a brunch trip to McDonalds (there is no cooking on birthday week! 😉 “De-Christmas-ing” had begun …

Cheryl of course is the real driver behind all of this. I think she is most glad to get whatever practical benefits out of Michael & I that she can – and sometimes that is not saying much, I am afraid. She did get SOME help from us today, I must say, though perhaps not as efficiently and trouble-free as one might have hoped.

For example, around our house, I have a reputation for throwing things away – and sometimes things that should NOT have been trashed. Over the years, and with no few “gentle exhortations” I have generally repented and learned new habits as far as throwing out most things goes: I will ask before I toss something out. But that did not keep me from getting a kick out of picking up a box that Cheryl is obviously about to put some Christmas ornaments back in and saying innocently: “Is this trash?!” (Don’t worry; I know very well how to duck when I need to …)

And then there is Michael. Cheryl gave him the job of checking the tree carefully for ornaments before I carried it out. He responded with some brilliant quotes from “Lord of the Rings” about what his “elf eyes could see”. Unfortunately, he was much better at the LOTR quotes than the tree checking. He is definitely my son!

But my proudest moment of the day had to be: “The crisis of the missing box.” We have a beautiful ceramic nativity set that Cheryl’s granny made for us before she died. We put it on the mantle over the fireplace each year. One of the first things we needed to do today, as we set out to put the Christmas ornaments up, was get the special box to put Granny’s nativity set in. But where was it? It was not like it could be easily hidden – it was a big, “Tupperware” style storage box, several feet long, wide, and high. But Cheryl looked all over the house, and could not find where she put it. She asked me to go and check the attic. No way it was up there; no missing something that big. Where could it be? Not in the shed out back. I double-checked the house to see if Cheryl was just overlooking it in some familiar but obvious place – but no box! This was puzzling; there are a limited number of places that something like that can hide. It was mystifying. Cheryl went to check the attic again, Michael double-checked the house, and I began to think: suddenly, this seemed somehow familiar … where could a big box be hidden? Like a flash, I had an inspiration: I had just been to church a couple of days ago, to set up the Christmas Eve program. While looking for a table to put up on stage, I had noticed that the ladies who decorated had used some small tables and some boxes to put underneath some cloth where some trees and ornaments were placed. Did we have anything like that here at home? My steps took me right by the front window, where I saw two mini-trees, perched atop a box-type stand, covered by a white, snowy-like cloth. I didn’t even have to look. “Tell Mom I found it!” I hollered to Michael. Faith came before sight, but I needed to confirm my faith. I pulled up the cloth, and there was the box! Mystery solved! That new Sherlock Holmes book I started reading is already paying dividends!

All in all, the “De-Christmas-ing” is going well. The living room is “back to normal” and I have my regular, comfortable view of things. Not that everything is done yet. Like Michael, I occasionally get distracted by something – like writing this blog! I guess I’d better get back at it …