Hey, slow down, these are our precious Christmas heirlooms!

Good morning!

So yesterday...and today...we are removing all the Christmas crap from the house.  Now, I love Christmas.  I love having the house decorated.  I love the lights...I love everything about Christmas trees, pretty Christmas candle holders, garland, ornaments, Christmas stuff in the bathroom.

It's my favorite thing.

Until January 6, when it becomes my least favorite thing.

Get these cursed things away from me!

January 6 rolls around, and like some automatic alarm, something goes off in my head that screams, "GET IT OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!"

Maybe it's because Christmas is over and I want to declutter.  Maybe it's because I'm tired of the cats pouncing on each from the most excellent hiding spot under the tree.  (We think a cat sitting under a lighted tree is oh so pretty.  Cats think it's the best way to prepare for war.)

Yesssss.  The humans think I'm cute.  Little do they know I am sitting
here just waiting for the right moment to POUNCE!

(For the record, yes, I am one of those people who start yelling "TAKE IT DOWN" out of the car window.  I start doing that the first week of February.  There, you've been warned.)

This eagerness to de-Christmas the house might seem like the result of a wish to be tidy. 

If you saw how I store my Christmas crap, you'd have serious doubts about that.

Every year, I drag out no less than 22 big plastic boxes full of random Christmas items.  Most of these items haven't seen the light of day for at least five years.  BUT I cannot toss them or give them away.  THESE ARE MY PRECIOUS HOLIDAY HEIRLOOMS.

Now I could...I suppose...put the many items I have no intention of using in this house EVER into separate boxes.  I could label each box as to what it has in it.  I COULD  put the boxes of items I know I will use in this house each year at the top of the stack of boxes so that when I go to decorate next year, it won't be the back breaking drawn out battle it is every year.

Please don't take down the tree...I haven't reached the top branch yet!

I could.  But I probably won't.

No, instead what can...and will happen this year, because it's what happens every year, is my frantic desire to "GET IT DOWN RIGHT NOW" will overwhelm my desire to organize that pit of death under the stairs.  I will drag out all 22 boxes, I will jam random things from this year into each, and I will shove them back under the stairs without even thinking.

And next year I will curse myself and my disorganized ways as I open all 22 boxes to find that one precious thing that I MUST PUT UP.

All set for next year.  How nice.  Blah, blah, blah diddy blah!

Oh you have one of these....and you use it?  Well...aren't you just the most? 
I need to lie down.

Hubby does the outside lights, and he does not have this problem.  He has two boxes.  That's it.  Two boxes for our outside display.  Two boxes and then he hangs the dozen or so light up candy canes from a rafter in the garage.  He does everything in an afternoon.  And when he is done, there is no trace of Christmas in the garage or outside.  Everything is put away.

Meanwhile, I have three strings of lights two garland ropes, and our toilet paper roll angel that Skippy made in preschool sitting on my kitchen table.  Those items will now sit there until probably Valentine's Day, when I will be so sick of looking at them, I'll actually BUY another box to put them in.  I'd take them downstairs and put them in an existing box, but I don't have the energy, now that everything is down and I have room in my living room for the cats to do battle with each other again, to find a box with space for three strings of lights, some garland, and our precious Christmas heirloom angel.

Good enough for me!  What's on Netflix?

Which is why next year I'll have 23 boxes, and not one more degree of organization.