| More than memories to packing up after holidays |
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By: BY JEANNE BRAGG
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The New Year has been welcomed, the old one is gone and it's time to put away all that stuff we drug out for out holiday festivities. Uggh.
Family members have offered to help, but I feel it's something only I am qualified to do. Every year I sort through the things I haven't used in a while and throw or give them away. That can only be done by me.
My neighbor Pat takes things down in the reverse order of the way she puts them up, so that when the next year comes there's no guesswork involved.
I'm not that organized.
This year I had red balls all over the house and dumped them all in a box that said, "red balls" and put them in the attic. They'll go all over the house next year, but at least they're in one place.
I also took all the non-breakable ornaments from the family tree and stuffed them in a box. It's surprising how little room they take up.
But I took better care with the collector's ornaments and more fragile ones this year.
Every year I swear I'm not going to buy any fragile ornaments again---you know, those yellow taxicabs to remind you of your trip to New York---the alligators to remind you of vacation, etc? Each year, despite the care I take, I seem to break at least one of them. And each year I swear I won't buy one more again.
One year my daughter Beth and her friend stood in line in Atlanta to get ornament artist Christopher Radko to sign an ornament for me. She bought me a colorful gumball machine because she just liked the way it looked but didn't think it represented anything significant. It is beautiful. And, unknown to her, there was real significance there.
Before she was born, Tommy bought me a gumball machine to put in her nursery because it was full of brightly colored balls and matched her striped wallpaper. An amazing coincidence that makes the Christmas ornament all the more special.
I wish I had kept that gumball machine for posterity, but as we all know – especially at this time of the year – you can't keep everything. In years past when I've felt this need to purge I've really gone on a tear. And frankly, I've regretted giving away some of that those meaningful things.
It's hard to know what to keep and what to give away. Since I have three young adult children I keep thinking when and if they ever get homes I can share some of these things with them. As it is, they still have their own "stuff" in storage (and in my attic). Hopefully soon they'll have more than 800 square feet of space to themselves and want some things with sentimental attachment. So I'll be somewhat selective when I make a march through every room this week and seem what I can purge.
Apparently I'm not the only person in the world trying to make some order. The stores and ads are full of organizing containers, shelves, plastic drawers and all things efficient to enable us in this quest.
In addition to "containing" Christmas, we'll be preparing for income tax season. If only we had some "day after New Years" elves in our attic waiting to come help us. I'd sign up for that.
'Til then, I'm off to scavenge the house. I'll throw away the last pieces of fruitcake and box up those last pieces of greenery. I'll try to use any storage containers I have on hand, because if I go to the stores I might be tempted to sneak a peek at some 80 percent off Christmas merchandise or take a glance at the Valentine's paraphernalia that is already on the shelves.
So to those in similar circumstances, happy cleaning. Here's hoping the pursuit of order will bring along wonderful memories of yet one more holiday season left behind.
Til later.
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Member Opinions:
By: justdance on 1/16/08
Love this story.
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