It's just not cute anymore...

This is our house.


This is our house on Christmas.

It's just not cute anymore.

I get so excited, weeks (Will would say months) before Christmas, about putting out the Christmas decorations. Especially this year, the first year I've really decorated this house (last year we had just moved in). Planning where it all will go, using my Christmas dishes, setting up and looking at the Christmas village, decorating the tree with all our keepsake ornaments, having people over, going to parties, singing until I'm hoarse, eating until I pop and being emmersed in the warmth, color, and sounds of Christmas.

But that was several weeks ago and now, after it's all over, the house feels cluttered, turned upside down and I feel out of sorts and anxious with a yearning to get the house and my life back to "normal."

But I think it's more about me than it is about the house or Christmas decorations. The chaos and busy-ness of the holiday season is fun and attractive, but it's just not possible to keep up that frenzied pace. It's not possible to continually live a lifestyle that is "over the top" and "excess."

My brain is jumbled and tired from trying to fit everyone and everything in.

So, back into the boxes and back into the storage room all the shiny, bright, cute, and festive things go. Back into place go the usual sit-arounds...

...or maybe nothing goes in its place and it's just empty in some places. And that empty space itself is comforting and reassuring because I need a little empty space in my house and my brain right now.

I need that empty space because I need some places where the memories from this Christmas can live...

I'm sure next year about November, I'll get excited again, in anticipation...but now, it's time to not be excited and to simplify. Ahhhh, that feels good.