De-Christmasing the house...

Young Miss C is still with us..... we spent today taking down Christmas decorations in the living room and dining room. The process went much quicker than usual, with C taking charge of the 1950s aluminum tree, and helping me go back and forth from the front of the house to the very back of the house as the little table-top trees went up on the shelves of the storage closet. Instead of me having to go up and down the step-stool with each one, I just stayed there while C handed me each tree.

It was the perfect day for this job..... cloudy and dreary outside, with not a drop of sunshine. Started out cool this morning, but then warmed up after dinner-time. I'm hoping that tomorrow is a prettier day.

The only sign of Christmas in this house is the big tree in the dining room. We left that up for one more day, and tomorrow we'll take off the ornaments, then my husband can take off the lights.... and then out the tree goes into one of the pastures. It will become part of one of the brush-piles, and as the tall grasses grow over it, the brush-pile becomes a refuge for small animals and birds. Last year's tree is out there on a pile, and if you didn't know there was a fir tree under that mound of tall grass, you would think there's a little mountain in the middle of the field.

So that was the day.... taking down Christmas, getting lunch and dinner on the table for the three of us, C playing with the cats from time to time, playing cards, talking and laughing, C asking me what it's like to be in an Italian family ("Is it like being Sophia in The Golden Girls?"). It was just a nice normal day, like it used to be in the old house when we lived in the same subdivision and C would pop into our house several times a week. C does love this big old house, she loves the property, she is an outdoor girl... and when she comes out here, she doesn't want to leave.

C is older now, almost 20 and living with roommates in a rental house in Galveston near her college. She has grown into herself and is trying to figure out how to get what she wants out of life. My husband and I both told her to do something that she loves, so her life's work won't seem like a job... nothing worse than having to go into a job every morning without a smile on your face.

I have a feeling that no matter how many years pass, our 'young Miss C' is always going to be just that. And that is just another little miracle for which to be thankful.