Saturday, January 4, 2014

Returning to Normal

              after the holidays.



I have to admit that I'm not entirely sad the holidays are over. While I truly enjoy the fun and celebration, I'm also ready to return to normal life. We normally take our tree down the day after New Year's Day but I had to work so we took it down today (the following Saturday) instead. I received an e-mail from my work yesterday that said something like: it's never as fun to take the tree down as it is to put it up but...what goes up, must come down. The e-mail was sent as a safety reminder that dried-out trees are a serious fire hazard. But I couldn't help feeling the dread of knowing my kids entire nap-time on Saturday would be spent un-decorating.

Autumn asked me yesterday is we were taking the tree down and I told her we were the next day. When she woke up this morning she said, "It's okay if the Grinch takes our tree." That's when I realized we were all ready to return to normal. No matter how much I enjoy the season or how wonderful and magical it is - there's also something really nice about  "normal." I always feel this way after a wonderful vacation too.

The living room is still covered in displaced toys but we're getting closer to normal. Our house is quite modest so our Christmas tree goes in the "toy corner" and the toys are placed in the dining room, each of the girls' rooms and downstairs. We are incredibly thankful both girls took a good nap today and my husband and I worked at lightning speed to get all those fragile decorations boxed before the kids awoke. Now, I just have a little organizing to do to decide where the new toys will go.

In 11 more months, I'll be happy to unpack all those very special and sentimental decorations I so carefully packed today. For now, I'm happy to be back to normal.

2 comments:

  1. Very well said. I was also happy to re-claim the house for normal. It was very hard to get the ornaments off the tree with non-napping little boys in the house. I had them find and remove non breakables like a scavenger hunt and then rushed to grab all of the glass. We made our annual after christmas trip to Ikea to buy storage furniture. Now I just need to convince my oldest that it is ok to play in his room a bit and every toy doesn't have to be in the living room (although 80% still are).

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    1. Oh, Emily, I feel for you that neither of your boys are napping anymore! That is my "hurry up and get chores done" time. We have a few toys in the girls' rooms and in the down stairs area still but I find it so hard to play anywhere else other than the living room.

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