Dead woman typing....

Happy New Year.  And you will pardon me if that's not written with enough enthusiasm, but I'm still sick.  Most of the coughing seems to have disappeared, replaced with random sneezing. However, on the bright side, I did wash my hair today, and put on make-up, and I'm wearing earrings, so at least all of that must count for something.

I know for certain that friends and family alike are going to be 'tsk-tsking' me for not getting a flu shot, especially the ones who asked me back in October if I did indeed "take the shot."   My answer then was no, and even now, after being sick for a week, I don't think this will change my mind about getting the flu shot next year.  A friend and her husband, both of whom got flu shots, have also been sick through Christmas as well.  Not with the flu, exactly, but sick enough to cancel travel plans and toss their carefully prepared and planned holiday meals right down the garage disposal.

Friends "across the pond" in England have also been sick over the Christmas holidays, proof positive that no matter where you live and no matter where you go, if germs are going to seek you out and take root, a measly little flu shot isn't going to stop them.

I do feel much better today.... as compared to a few days ago when I felt like I'd been hit with a truck.  I do not, however, feel like my good old self that can run up and down the stairs of this house like the Energizer Bunny.  I have started un-decorating the house, putting little table-top trees back into the storage closet, collecting Santas and angels and reindeer... and if my flu-swollen eyes haven't deceived me, I would swear that the porcelain Christmas mice have multiplied since the day before Christmas Eve.  Which would serve me right, considering that I bought that cute little plaque that says "Not a creature was stirring...."

The big tree is still standing in the dining room.  My husband asked me just this morning if that tree was still taking water.  As if, in my flu-ridden state, I had even remembered that real trees need real water in order to keep their branches from drooping towards the floor?  To keep peace and harmony, I poured an entire plastic jug of water into the tree stand, and resisted the urge to ask my husband why he had not thought of watering the tree while I was bed-ridden with the flu.

The silver aluminum tree is still up in the living room.  That tree is usually the last of the table-top trees to go up, and the last one to come down.  Considering that the rest of the living room trees have been put away, and the Christmas mice have been rounded up, and even the Nativity Set is back in its box, the silver tree is sparkling on one side of the living room and making that part of the room still look Christmas-y.  The rest of the living room looks quite dull, which is what always happens as soon as you de-Christmas a house.  Especially a house that has been so immersed in Christmas for the past two months that hardly a corner went un-embellished.

Oh well, that post-Christmas dullness will soon pass..... just like the flu.