and now, it's over

I started putting away Christmas today

     I generally like to wait until Jan. 6.  That is the 12th day of Christmas, or Epiphany in some religious circles.
     Today I put away the downstairs tree.  It's not particularly emotional for me to do that.  I generally wax sentimental over the ornaments former students game me years ago.  I looked at one from Ally and smiled at the thought of that sweet child.  There were names on some....Bryan, Angie, Jeff....but a lot don't have names.
     I stuffed the artificial tree into its box and started working upstairs, putting away my pyramid.  That is a German thing with three levels and a different scene on each level.  When you light the candles, the rising heat hits the blades on top and the pyramid turns.  I love watching it spin, but unfortunately I only lit the candles once this year.
     I discovered my train tree had outgrown it's box, so I need to get a new container for that.  Those are Lionel train ornaments Hallmark puts out every year.  Jackie started giving me them when they first came out....a long time ago,
     Julia pointed out the live tree has spider webs.  Not cobwebs.  Spider webs.  That will come down Thursday and it could be an emotional experience for me.  That's the family ornament tree, with ornaments created by little Julia and little Emily when they were in grade school.
    Every year I wonder:  where has the time gone?  How did it pass so quickly?  When did we go from being the parents of two little girls to being the parents of two adult women, strong in their ways and stubborn, just like mom and dad.
     We also have ornaments from Bob and Anita.  They start out with all our names, then it's just Jackie, Emily and me, then Jackie and me.  Now Bob and Anita are in California and it's a long distance call to deride his Packers.
     My goal is to have all of Christmas put away and the house cleaned by Saturday.  I find if I have stuff to do, it keeps my mind occupied.
     Tomorrow is airport day....Julia's flight is at 7 p.m.  I am sure the drive home will be lively and filled with entertaining conversation.
     Or maybe we'll be quiet and remember all the fun things our family did together over the past three plus weeks.
     And I'll once again ponder the question of why time passes so fast.