Epiphany Day!

This is the twelfth day of the Christmas season, our final day of feasting and merriment (and vacation), which I celebrated by waking up at 6:45 and not being able to go back to sleep. Isn't that the way it always is on the last day of vacation?

Meelyn, Aisling and I endured the tedium of thehouse all day, suffering from a peculiar conundrum: Applesauce Anne was in the shop getting her serpentine belt fixed and the mechanics had her there all day long, so we couldn't go anywhere. And we deeply and truly wanted to go somewhere, because there's something wrong with the furnace's thermostat and I kept having to reset it every twenty-five minutes so that we wouldn't freeze.

It was a very dull and uncomfortable day, made even more so by the fact that Anne was gone all day, yet was never repaired, and that the furnace guy didn't show up. Kind of par for the course for this vacation. You cannot believe how GLAD I AM to be done with this past two weeks. Any more "vacation" and I won't be responsible for my actions. The only thing about this day that redeemed it from being a total stinker was the fact that Carol sent a box of gifts so crammed full of goodies and presents, it was practically bursting at the seams.

The Christmas tree comes down tomorrow, as do all the decorations except for the snowmen. The Advent candles are burned down to little stumps, and frankly, I'm just a little tired of looking at the rest of the junk. I feel very rueful that this Christmas doesn't have many happy memories attached to it, but I guess they all can't be candy canes and sugarplums.

The three Nativities will be with us until Candlemas on February 2 and then they'll all be boxed up for another year.

Looking back on the past twelve days-plus-three, I'd say that these things were the highlights:

1. Seeing my parents, even though they gave us the bologna virus

2. Going to midnight Mass

3. Having Christmas Eve with Grandad, who was well for the first time in the last four Christmases

4. Spending New Year's Eve with Beth, Jim and the rest of the gang

5. Getting that huge gift box from Carol today

6. Going to Gary and Katie's Epiphany party

7. Getting to spend time with Kieren and Dayden

Now, see! Look what a glass-is-half-empty kind of person I am. You should just back your eyes right up and forget you ever read this post. Here I was thinking that this Christmas didn't have very many happy memories and there I thought of seven things, right off the top of my head!