New Years Blues

It is about this time every year that I develop a good case of New Years Blues. Enough Christmas excitement was lingering in the air to keep me going this far. This morning however, I watched the last of the naked and discarded trees get picked up out of the snow bank and crunched in the back of the truck as I put the last of the Christmas decorations away. I did hesitate for a quick moment before I tossed our carefully decorated gingerbread house in the garbage, although it has been too stale to eat for some time now. The roof collapsed first and the little green and red M&M shingles crumbled in after it. The delicate icing Santa that topped it moments earlier now glared up at me from the bowels of the trashcan.

With so much build up there is bound to be an equal amount of let down when it ends. It is a shame that Christmas isn’t held in March and when it’s all over we find ourselves in spring! We could toss our gingerbread with no regrets and head to the cottage. With the threat of bathing suit season within reach I would probably reconsider what happens to all those left over chocolates as well! Sadly though we are left in the darkest days of the year where there are a few more page flips on the calendar then I would care for before we see the long, warm days of summer.

I have to remember then the Christmas I spent in Hawaii one year and while I would never knock gift giving on the beech, it just warn’t the same as home. It wasn’t quite Christmas without icy sidewalks, runny noses and frost bitten cheeks. There is something about these Canadian winters that we can’t live with and somehow can’t live without either. We get into the holiday spirit by building snowmen, tobogganing, drinking hot chocolate by a warm fire and watching the first snowflakes of the season trickle down while we still recognize the beauty before the inconvenience. Even if the novelty has worn off now it would be “uncandian” of me to enjoy the season we are in without complaint!