Holidays are Over!

I for one, am very happy to see an end to the holiday season this year. It's been 10 kinds of stressful, 9 bags of painful, 8 cases of bad booze, 7 times to long, 6 times to much money, 5 times to hot, 4 kinds of lonely, 3 ways to blow lights, 2 much togetherness, and 1 long ass trip. Ho, Ho, Ho.

Following my sisters advice, I put as little effort into Holidays this year as possible. And I found that it really did help. We did put up a tree, more for Will than anything else. But we put up less than 1/5 of the normal ornaments we usually place on it. I didn't put out any room decorations, and I have 5 or 6 boxes of them. I didn't decorate around my door, or hang items outside like I normally do. I didn't hang up my Christmas flag.

I did end up putting out two non-tree items. First, Will remembered from years past our three deer we put out each year. They are a family; buck, doe, and fawn. My Aunt Cindy actually gave them to me for Christmas one year -- about 8 years ago. Each year I put them out with garland. So I dug them out on Will's command and put them up. I didn't put them where I usually do, I just set them on the rock bench in front of our fireplace. About a week before Christmas I was cleaning up and happen to look over at them and laughed out loud. While most children are worried about leaving cookies out for Santa, my son was worried the deer weren't being fed.



The other item I put out is my Christmas Bull. I have always picked up small things when I travel that I can put on my Christmas tree. They don't have to be ornaments, or even come with strings. I just like to remember my trips, friends, and family while celebrating the holiday . . . normally.

While Paul was stationed in Germany he made a trip to Spain. He asked what I wanted him to pick up for me and I told him anything I could put on my Christmas tree. Well, he had trouble finding anything that said "Spain" and was small -- obviously they don't use key chains over there. So he sent me a black bull with swords through it. There is no doubt it yells "SPAIN", but when I put it on the tree you can't see it due to the dark color. So each year, I unpack it with the rest of my Christmas stuff and set it somewhere near other decorations -- poinsettias this year.

I am always asked about it by company and I simply tell them, "It's my Christmas Bull."



And yes, the speaker really is that dirty and I still haven't wiped it off.