Christmas has left the building....

It's the 10th of January, and the Christmas tree is outside in the yard, and I finally have a coat of nail polish on my fingernails.  Behind schedule on both counts, especially the nail polish.

We're into our third day of rain here, so the fields are too soggy for my husband to bring the Christmas tree to one of the brush piles. I'm hoping that the birds don't start building nests in the Christmas tree while it's laying on the side lawn.  The tree still looks pretty fresh, and it didn't drop millions of needles as my husband carried it through the dining room, the living room, the foyer, and then out the front door.

The Christmas tree went outside yesterday afternoon, and the boxes of Valentine decorations came out of the storage closet this morning.  Two boxes of hearts and Cupids and two small trees filled with red and pink hearts and little Cupids.  I was determined to whittle down the Valentine stuff... from two boxes to just one.  I kept all the vintage Valentine decorations, and the prettiest... and then I priced some of the decorations for my space at the antique shop, and I have a bag of decorations to donate to the local thrift store.

I told my husband that our annual Valentine party is now history... there aren't enough romantics up here to celebrate Valentine's Day the way we used to, with a house filled with friends and neighbors who would rather enjoy the evening at our house than go out to dinner at a crowded restaurant.  From now on, we'll either have a small dinner party with just enough friends to fill the dining room table, or we'll have a neighborhood get-together at the very beginning of February, or at the very end of the month, with not a mention of Valentine or Cupid on the invitations.  Or maybe we'll do nothing at all but have a nice dinner, just the two of us, and enjoy the decorations by ourselves.

So very cloudy and drippy and dreary outside today..... but the temperatures have warmed up to nearly 70 degrees, so at least that's something to smile about.