Letting go

I hate to throw out a beautiful plant, but poinsettias have their season. I take mine out to the compost heap and "set them free," but not without a final closeup.

More gift tags

In cleaning out boxes and ribbons that are no longer suitable for recycling, I came across a box lid I could not bear to throw out. Instead, I turned it into gift tags for next year. I may go ahead and order a roll of plain red wrapping paper to use with them (and for Valentine's Day, soon.) I have dozens of white bows I could use with them, too.

Recycled Christmas Card Tags

I may not get my postcards done this month, but I did go through my Christmas cards for candidates for gift tags. All of these tags were cut from the fronts of received cards.

Lunch Money

We were having lunch at Cracker Barrel today and four soldiers came in. We couldn't afford to buy their lunch, but Kent, my husband, gave them some money toward the cost of it and told them he appreciated them. I'm very proud of him. He's keeping Christmas!

Hiding Christmas!

Here's a way I "keep" Christmas (out of sight) till next year!

Snowmen in January

I think I'll leave these little guys up a while longer. I use red & white in my kitchen, anyway.

Share the Warmth

In January, I used to give a donation to Duke Energy's Share the Warmth Fund. Last year, my check came back ,"Address unknown." I checked Duke energy's website, and it still lists the same P.O. box as last year. It also lists partner agencies with phone numbers. I'll try to call one of those, tomorrow.

A few years back, Duke Power cut off the electricity to an elderly woman who could not pay, and she froze to death. That should never, ever happen in America, today.

CELEBRATE THE EPIPHANY!

Today is the Epiphany, or Old Christmas, as it is sometimes called. In England, it is the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Today, the Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the Three Wise Men, bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus.

I am celebrating today by turning on all the Christmas lights I've not packed away.

I also made a gift for my husband. We were watching vH1's "Greatest Hard Rock Hits" the other night. I took note of the ones he liked that we don't already have on hand. I then legally downloaded 9 of them and burned him a CD today.

So now, he can sing, "On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a CD of my favorite hard rock songs!"

Finally Fish

I finally finished the neighbor kids' "fish in a bag" soaps. I left them in the neighbors' mailboxes as a surprise this afternoon. I intended to deliver them tomorrow on the Epiphany, but its supposed to rain and today was beautiful. I even sat on the front porch and read for a little while.

I got the idea for the fish soaps from the Martha Stewart Show shortly before Christmas. It took longer than I'd anticipated, so they weren't done in time for Christmas. Besides, I like stretching out the season. I'm not too crazy about the carol, but I do like the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas. One side of the gift tags I created for the soaps explains what the Epiphany is about.

Now the kids can sing, "On the eleventh day of Christmas my neighbor lady gave to me...a toy goldfish trapped in a bag of soap!"

Gift Receipt Folder

I found a better folder for my Christmas receipts. I found it at Staples. It's vinyl and a pocket folder. Having a place for gift receipts definitely makes Christmas easier.

Christmas money

Years ago, the local banks offered a "Christmas Card Account." Each month, you put money in your Christmas account and the amount of deposit was recorded on a card. I haven't seen that offer lately, but today (actually yesterday) I started a savings account for next Christmas.

After examining receipts and my credit card bills for this Christmas Season, the amount I'm saving might not be enough to cover all my expenses, but it'll take a good, stress-relieving chunk out.

Just a little tree:

One thing that will make things easier this Christmas is putting away the tree. I can't believe I didn't put up a huge tree this year; it seems almost sacrilegious.

My living room is pretty small, too. A big tree occupies a lot of space, so I got on line to Jackson & Perkins and bought a tiny little live tree, complete with ornaments and lights.

When it arrived, I took it out of the box, adjusted the ornaments, set it on the hearth and plugged it in!

Keeping it watered is easier, too, because I don't have to crawl under it. My husband and I have been very pleased and will probably do the same thing next year!

Time to pack it up!

Here it is again, New Year's Day! It makes me sad because I start packing away the Christmas decorations. Sometimes, I just wait till the Epiphany, or Old Christmas, as folks around here call it.

If I do wait that long, it takes me till March to get it all put away. So, I've already put away my twinkling deer from the front yard. (It was warm day before yesterday.) Now I've got to get busy.

Once again, this year, I'm going to try and be organized about it. Can you hear Santa laughing from Hawaii? "HO! HO! HO! That's very funny!"

Well, it's part of my plan to make Christmas easier next year.