OH OH OH

Today began the sad task of putting away Christmas.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus had to go back inside their boxes and up into the attic until next year.  The stockings that were so neatly hung by the chimney went back into the boxes with care.  All the ornaments on the tree were one by one taken down with fond memories and stored for yet another year.  We were sure to have specific boxes for each of our children's ornaments.  Next Christmas will bring 2 of our children away at college so we made sure to have their favorite ornaments separated so the ornaments would be waiting for our daughters to hang them once they return home for the holidays.  We used to wait until the very last day of holiday break to put away Christmas.  We wanted to enjoy Christmas until the very last second.  We found however, that putting away Christmas AND saying good-bye to Christmas break all in the same day was just too sad.  It is hard enough for Christmas break to come to an end but to add the UNdecorating with the last day of vacation, meant the entire last day together was spent being sad.  We have moved up the undecorating day a few days each year and this year is the earliest we have ever put our decorations away.  The weather this morning was RAINY which pretty much said to all of us - spend the rainy day indoors putting away all the holiday decorations.  That way we still have New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and a few days after that to enjoy our time together.  Everyone worked together and we have almost everything boxed up.  The only thing left is the big haul up to the attic.  It shouldn't take too long but lugging everything back upstairs is never too much fun.  We will have to do something extra enjoyable tonight to counteract the depressing effects of putting away the holiday cheer. I think it might just call for a family game night!  I see popcorn, apple cider and a rousing game of Apples to Apples or Scene It for tonight's festivities.  That should keep the good times rolling.  We also can play with a few puppies tonight as Ariel's puppies are getting old enough to leave their mommy and hang out with us for a while.  They are getting cuter by the day and are pretty snuggable! Overall - I would say putting our HO HO HO things away wasn't OH OH OH too bad!  Many hands make light work and now we can sit back and enjoy all the room for game night!