Traditionally, Christmas lasted until January 13th in this country – that is, until the 20th day of Christmas.
With all the preparations (Slaughtering pigs and preparing sausages, black puddings and meat, baking, cleaning house, decorating house, and the trimming of the tree on December 23rd) done, one had to keep the Christmas spirit for as long as possible. Of course, all the parties and dinner get-togethers took time too…
Many people start earlier these days, and “throw Christmas out” on or around Boxing Day, but I’m a stickler for tradition.
So, as yesterday was January 13th, I invited the in-laws for the last meal of Christmas. Complete with all the trimmings. The tree was still up, I’d only removed my 1738 little Santa figurines and other Chrissie stuff from around the house earlier in the day. I even found a couple of Santas that someone (?) had hidden way back in the stereo cabinet. The kids were supposed to “untrim” the tree after dinner, but the meal kinda dragged out, so I turned off the tree lights to symbolize the official end of Christmas, and they’ll be allowed to put all the decorations back into their boxes when #5 Brat comes home from school today. And off everything goes, back into the attic, to await another Christmas.
Back to normal…
Oh, and the evening was very nice. My in-laws are sweet people.
Stumble it!
