I did something yesterday that I can’t ever recall doing before. We took down our Christmas tree on December 26th.

Typically, we leave it up at least through the 27th, since that’s my daughters birthday. It makes the house seem a little more festive when our family comes over to celebrate. I don’t need to put up crepe paper & balloons when there’s a Christmas tree in the corner, right? The tree just seemed to dry out quicker this year, and when I went to put a fallen ornament back on, the branch I used lost almost all it’s needles. Since Jim was home today, it seemed like a good day to end Christmas. I had all of the ornaments off and packed up in record time, and we even tossed a few old decorations we don’t use anymore.

Jim broke out the label maker and made labels for the front of the tote boxes we store the Christmas crap in, so we can see at a glance what’s in each box. I did leave the garland on the stair railings and the stockings up. I didn’t want to lose the Christmas feeling entirely, but the tree had to go. Jim dragged it out into the backyard and I’ve asked him to slice it up with his chainsaw so that we can burn it in the fire pit.

Ooh, speaking of fire pits…on Tuesday night our friends (and neighbors) called us over to break in their brand new fire pit. We enjoyed ice cream cake and looked at the moon through the telescope…we usually stick close to home on Christmas, but I can make an exception for a night light that. It was just cool enough to enjoy the fire without feeling cold. If it stays this way, we’ll need to light up ours for Catherine’s party tonight. (I still can’t fathom that I’m going to have TWELVE year old daughter!)