It's funny how we change

It's Epiphany and my Christmas decorations are still up. Still up and I haven't really thought about when I'm going to get around to putting it all away. For some people, this might be normal, but not for me. 

When we only had a few children, we would always head to Arizona to visit my family after Christmas. There is nothing worse than to come home to a dried tree and decorations to put away after vacation, so I always got things cleaned up before we left. Sometimes this happened the 26th.

When we had more children than we could afford plane tickets, the decoration stayed up a bit longer. In that season my New Year's Day activity was to take down the decorations. I really wanted to start the year with a clean and tidy house. 

Last year I don't think I took things down on New Year's Day and this year I didn't even think about it. I'm not finding them overwhelming as in years past. I think the difference is that when you have younger children the accompanying messes are much greater. When you add that to added decorations, well, it can be a bit much, especially for someone who can't relax well in clutter. With a houseful of teens and adults there is just less stuff lying about. I think this more than anything is why I haven't needed to whip out the boxes and pack everything up as soon as possible. My opposite problem seems to have become finding enough motivation to get the job done.

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