december 26th - january 1st

every year, between Christmas and new year's, i remember how between Christmas and new year's used to feel. and i, for one, make sure it still does.

• you'd leave the gifts out under the tree, still in their boxes and tissue paper (which was always either plain white or white with those little different colored flecks of whatever they were on them), and every time you'd walk by the tree you'd be like, oh yeah......i got that, too! and you'd feel good inside.
• you were either waiting for it to snow so you could use your new sled or waiting for it to thaw so you could use your new bike. and unlike other kinds of waiting, that was a wonderful kind of waiting.
• you were on Christmas vacation. not Christmas break and not winter break. Christmas vay.cay.shun.
• you'd go downtown and buy something with the money your aunt and uncle gave you. and it was half off, so you'd buy two!
• while there, your parents would buy next year's Christmas cards and next year's wrapping paper. so you got to start dreaming about another Christmas even as you were still enjoying this one.
• Christmas vacation seemed like a long, long time.
• you'd eat holiday leftovers all week.
• you'd be excited for new year's eve. and guy lombardo.
• you'd keep trying to decide which gift to bring on the first day back to school for show and tell. and the choices were plentiful!
• you'd stay in your jammies longer.
• you'd watch a little captain kangaroo and then play with your new stuff. then you'd watch a little lucy's toyshop and take a nap. and then you'd wake up and eat Christmas cookies.
• everyone's Christmas decorations were still up. even though Christmas was officially over, nobody wanted it to be over. and so........it wasn't!
• but mostly, nobody had gone back to being their usual crabby old selves.