Last vestiges of Christmas

All of Christmas, even Santa's laundry, has been finally packed away today.

I've been picking away at it a bit each day, family room tree, Santa collection, living room tree, nativity displays, etc. This morning the Christmas elves returned to help take down the outside lights. Elf Nate was still singing Christmas songs and I was serenaded as I coiled the lights he so gently dangled down from the eaves.

One vestige of the season remains. I've decided that I want all the colored glass, including trees, in my laundry room window catching the low down winter sunshine. Those leaves you see through the window are my tomato plants. They have thrived in the sunny south facing garage so Nate helped me move them to the next best place; on each side of the garage door.

I've been reading a delightful book this week when I needed a break from packing boxes. It was originally written in French but luckily has been translated into English. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is full of delightful things to quote including this:

"Pleasant in what way?"

She thinks for a moment, wrinkling her brow.

"Pleasant like after the Christmas holidays, when you've had too much to eat. I think about the way it feels when everyone has left . . . My husband and I, we go to the kitchen, I make up a little bouillon with fresh vegetables, I slice some mushrooms real thin and we have our bouillon with those mushrooms in it. You get the feeling you've just come through a storm, and it's all calm again."

I've enjoyed the storm but a pared down house feels calm.