Change Is Good!

This year as my husband and I were taking down Christmas, it occurred to me how much things have changed.

When I was young, Christmas didn't start until a couple of weeks before the holiday.  We'd cut down the tree, get it home, and take at least a week to decorate it.  Once it was done, we'd clean and decorate the rest of the house.  Sometimes we wouldn't be ready until Christmas Eve.  It didn't matter though because Christmas celebrations didn't start until Christmas.  The week between Christmas and New Years you got company and you were company.  Everyone visited everyone.  There were always cookies, nuts, fruit, ham, potato salad, pop, beer, coffee and highballs.  It was so much fun and I hated to see it end.  I would be so sad when it was time to put it all away and go back to school.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but eventually Christmas started on Thanksgiving.  Trees are up and everything is decorated inside and out.  All parties and visiting seem to happen before the holidays.  By Christmas day, everything is pretty much over, not just starting.  But when I took things down, I'd still get kind of sad.  And when I would drive by a house that still had their tree up or lights on outside I'd feel melancholy.

For the last couple of years though, it's been totally different.  I'm so ready by the day after Christmas to take it down and put it away.  I have to force myself to wait until at least New Year's Day.  And once it is down, I'm not the least bit sad.  When I see others with trees and decorations up, I think to myself how lucky I am that I'm done.

So why have things changed so much?  Is it the fact that I'm older?  Is it the changing energies?  Is it a natural progression?  I can't answer these questions.  I just don't know.  But what I do know is that it's okay.  Things are constantly changing and evolving and that's okay.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  Change is good.

Love,  Paula