The Day After Christmas Crash
The stockings are no longer hung but flung precariously on a table’s edge. Bits of wrapping paper still cling to the floor by tape trailing through the house as if a path leading away from the Christmas tree. The empty boxes stacked neatly now void of their contents sit idly awaiting the next phase of their journey. The house is quiet as the much anticipated event has now ended. Children still snuggled in their beds grasping their new toys and dreaming of magical elves flying back home to Santa. I stand with my coffee cup in hand looking over the new additions to my to do list and wondering where to start first. The decorations, the bits of paper, the trash… the list seems endless with more added and something else is noticed. Yesterday was about making memories leaving the work for today but today seemed so far away during the magic of Christmas. Boom, here it is.
This is the day that usually takes the most toll on me. It’s like I ate all the hidden Halloween candy all at once and then crashed in the aftermath. The Christmas season is so packed full of fitting everything in that it becomes sort of a surreal time of lights, wonder, and magic. Once it is over and real normal life comes clattering back down on me it’s a rush of emotions. I want to hold onto this feeling just a little longer but I am ready to get back into a routine all at the same time. The kids are growing up, I am getting older… life is moving so quickly that yet another Christmas has passed us by and a new year will be upon us before we even realize it. Emotionally for me, the day after Christmas is one of the harder times of motherhood. I love it and dread it all in one breath.
Yet, as I stand her assessing the Christmas left overs, I know that we are so blessed. This Christmas was magical. It was everything I hoped it would be. Yes, it is over now but I can be happy it happened. Those memories are what will last on even when the Christmas decorations have been taken down and placed back into storage. Even when the kids start complaining they are bored in less than a week and every single toy has been released from it’s plastic confinement, those special moments will survive in my heart. GOD has been good to us and for that I am thankful. So while I pull up the wrapping paper, discard the many plastic wires that held toys into place, and try to find the normal once more I will remember that although this Christmas season is coming to an end I can still carry the spirit of it with me in the memories and wishes of things to come.
