The 12th Day of Christmas

 

Today is the 12th day of Christmas.  Yes, there are twelve days of Christmas (according to the church calendar) and then on the 6th of January we move into Epiphany.  (Celebrating the three wise men who followed the star.  In all honesty, I think it probably took them more than 12 days to get to where they were going, but that's another story.)

So after today, Christmas is officially over.  So it's time to take down the decorations.  I don't like to do so beforehand because it's still Christmas. But now Christmas is over.  It's time to take down the decorations.

I'm big into decorating for the holidays.  I like to prep for one and when it's over take it down and prep for the next.  So my Christmas decorating starts after Thanksgiving and during Advent.  And in my mind those decorations stay up until the 12th day of Christmas.  Then it's over and they should be taken down, put away until the next year.  There should be no more tree.  No more lights.  No more of all the "other stuff" that I (we?) associate with the holiday.

Now usually, I would do this tomorrow.  Everything would still be up and on through tonight and then tomorrow it's over.  However, I have one small problem.  Tonight I will be heading back to NJ so that I can go into the office tomorrow and the day after.  (I'll admit that I've been really happy that I haven't had to be in the office since early December.  It's a crazy busy time at the end of the year...and technically into the New Year because we don't "close" the old year until a few ways into January.  There's so much work there isn't time for commuting, which is a blessing because over the past several weeks I've been putting in 9 or so hours a day, but that's a whole other story.)  Hence, I won't be around to take down the decorations.  I have some slight hope that my husband might take care of this for me, but...  So, to my unease, I may have to wait to do all of this until Thursday. (Either on my lunch break or after I've shut down for the day or maybe both!) That makes me uncomfortable.  It's just the way I was built.  Or maybe it's just an old habit that I'm having a difficult time letting go of.

Now I said I have just one problem and I just realized that it's not completely true.  I have Christmas lights outside.  Christmas is over.  I should take them down.  I even wrote about this once:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/dont-break-law-take-down-your.html.  But...

(I know there have been a lot of "buts" in today's post!)

As I've mentioned, we live on a private drive in the Poconos. No one really comes down the street.  (The exception being the fools who can't read the signs that we've put up that says it's not a through street.  No matter what Google maps or any other GSP system may tell you, you CAN'T get to Spruce Cabin Road from my house; at least not directly! You see that little circled area below on the map?  It's sort of a hump.  That hump is my neighbor's driveway, in which she has put up saw horses to prevent people from using her arc shaped drive so they can continue on the road, which doesn't continue.  It's a long and confusing issue, which I've written about way too much!)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  No one is going to see lights if I put them up on my house.  People driving by on the road behind us CAN see our Christmas tree lit up in the family room. (Which is why I put it there.) They can also see the lights that are in the ground in our backyard.  Maybe next year I should figure out a way to put up holiday lights there?  

This year, what I did do was attempt to put a few lights out in the bushes by the road.  I figured my one neighbor could see them and I like lights at the holidays.  It's the darkest time of the year, we need a little light, right? (" The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.")  However, our driveway is a big arc.  It's a long way from our house (where the electric is) and to the street, which an "island' (of trees) separating us.

Getting lights out there would be a challenge.

Last Christmas I TRIED to put some solar powered light out.  They were "cheap" and there weren't many of them.  I didn't work.

This year I tried again.  They were better quality and they worked! I planted the "solar panel" and draped the lights around the bush (with prickers which made it difficult) and on the lower branches of a tree. They were dim and I could only see a glimmer from one window in the house at night, but they worked!  The fact that they worked made me happy.  I look out every night to see these little lights.  And now that Christmas is over, it's time to take them down, but...

It snowed.  It snowed frequently in December.  So much so that our plow company, which maybe came out 4 times last winter, has already been out 5 times!  So this is what things look like now:

To keep the light on through the snow, I've had to dig out a whole and continually brush off the solar panel.

  But I can't really get to the panel to dig it out.  Furthermore, many lights are buried under the snow piles! 

At the rate we are going, I may not be able to dig out my Christmas lights until Palm Sunday!  (Easter is the first Sunday in April this year, so I'm hoping I can dig them out beforehand.)  That's CRAZY!  

I guess I've got what's coming to me; karma is waking me up.  I've bitched for years about taking down the lights and this year, I'm going to be leaving them up until...only time (and lack of snow) will tell.

So I apologize to those I told to take down their Christmas lights. I have seen the error of my ways! Because my lights are going to be shining (or trying to) all winter long!  

Maybe spring will come early this year?  A girl can hope!