All Good Things Must Come to an End

Brandon is back at work after 2 1/2 weeks at home with us. It sure was nice having him at home for all that time. I am, however, looking forward to getting back into our routine. I'm also just now getting around to taking down Christmas. This makes me very sad to have to do, and apparently I'm not the only one. Presley has been following me around all morning adamantly protesting the taking down of Christmas. She seems especially attached to her stocking. I put it up, and two minutes later she drags it out. I hide it in a different box, and there she is pulling it out again and so on and so forth.

Since we both seemed to be struggling with letting go of Christmas, I decided to pull out the book "The Night before Christmas". This book is very special to me as it's been a tradition in our family since I was little. Every Christmas Eve my Dad would read this to us before bedtime. A couple years ago, my Mom and I found the recordable version, and my Dad recorded the story for Presley. I love having it, and especially love getting to share that piece of my childhood with my daughter(s).

 After our little nostalgic story time, I found a present Presley had yet to open and this tickled her to pieces. I took full advantage of the distraction and cleared away most of the Christmas decorations. Now the only thing left is a giant glittery mess, and a house that looks bare. Am I the only one that hates how bare the house looks once Christmas is put away? It is a great excuse to go shopping though...

It's really not all that sad. Our family has a lot to look forward to in 2012, and I have a feeling this is going to be a wonderful year.