The second week of the New Year and already it is difficult to remember the Christmas vacation. In the main that is. For some of our neighbors, Christmas (as far as lights go anyway) endures.
Perhaps that's not such a bad thing. I know of those who took decorations down the very evening of Christmas itself. Having grown up in a home where the tree remained until "little Christmas" - January 6th - at least, removing decorations while still in December is foreign to me.
There was the year that some of the decorations, paper lanterns if memory serves, remained strung up for the entire year. Festive, that's what we called it.
As we move forward into this year 2009, it is nice to think that some of the light and color that mark the Holidays might be carried with us.
To Naomi and Gertrude, one Young Woman and one Grand Lady, Happy Birthday.
