“She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end and I said I didn’t really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up ,’til June that year.” - Story People I AM a big fan of family, fun and festivity, so the holidays are a big deal for me. Lots of preparation, planning and anticipation, followed by the brief flurry of the actual event, followed by a bit of a let down. So much excitement and anticipation, so fleeting the joy. For this reason I am never in a hurry to undecorate after Christmas.
While my fastidious neighbors take their trees down and undeck their halls in a timely manner, I continue to bask in the glow of my Christmas tree long past the time it is considered appropriate. One year we left the tree up until Valentine’s Day. Why? It was a bleak year with some trials and tribulations going on and I really didn’t see the point of putting the only pretty thing in my life (or so it seemed at the time) out on the curb.
For years I suffered the kind inquiries of neighbors and friends, asking why my Christmas decorations were still up. Every year I offered the same vague responses about “just haven’t gotten to it yet,” or “been down with a touch of the flu” or “it’s such a bleak time of year,” etc. etc. Finally, they quit asking. “Chalk it up to another one of her eccentricities,” their silence seems to say; and that’s okay with me.
Recently I found a remedy to my attempt to cling to the holiday spirit by clinging to our Christmas tree — after all, some year I could actually burn the house down by leaving that dry monument to Christmasnow- past up for so long. The last two years we have extended the holidays (and, so my enjoyment of the season) by booking a few days between Christmas and New Year’s at a house in the Georgia mountains. Mr. Clark, our kids, their spouses, and our grand dogs load up some good food fixin’s, plenty of libation, and as many games, cards, magazines, books and puzzles as will fit in our cars, and we head for the hills for a few days of good old fashioned TV-less fun. It’s wonderful. With the stress of preparing for the holidays behind us and the warm glow of the holidays still within us, these few days of doing nothing but cooking, eating too much, reading, playing games and enjoying each others’ company are really quite special. So is the time without internet access or electronic diversion.
This year’s trip hit a snag due to the big snow storm which rendered the nice house in Hiawasee we had enjoyed so much last year and reserved again this year unreachable. They got six inches of snow and the house sits on the top of a mountain, at the end of a long steep driveway. A thick layer of ice under the snow complicated the situation, rendering the people who were supposed to leave trapped, so we were unable to check in.
We did some calling and they did some calling and we found a guy with a plow who could come dig them out “first thing Monday morning,” so we packed our cars. He finally showed up late Monday afternoon and did a bunch of plowing, so we set out for the house. While en route, we got a call confirming that the layer of ice under the snow was too thick, so the folks trapped in the house were still trapped. Damn!
Thank heavens for iPhones and the Internet. A few inter-car conference calls later, we had decided to continue and had booked another pet-friendly place just outside of Helen. Our son, his wife and their dog were the first to arrive. “How is the cabin?” I asked him, while getting final directions. “Cold,” was his only reply. “We’re going to need some wood. All there is here is a fireplace and a couple of little electric heaters.”
A quick stop at the Cleveland Wal-Mart for fake logs and we were back on our way. Another call for a few more directions (turns out the place was pretty hard to find, especially in the dark) and we hear that the stove “doesn’t seem to work, but we’ll keep trying.” Oh, well, there’s no turning back now...It’s nearly 9 p.m. and we’ve already paid for the place.
Long story short, the cabin turned out to be simple, poorly furnished, ill-equipped, and the stove wasn’t the only thing that didn’t work — not at all the way it was portrayed on the internet. We finally did get the stove to work, those Wal-Mart logs did a great job of warming the place up and in a short while that rustic cabin turned into the best place on earth.
We ended up opting to stay at the simple cabin, rather than move to the fancier house, once the road melted off, and a good time was had by all. By the time we got back home, I had enjoyed such a fine feast of family time and festivity that contemplating taking our Christmas tree down right after New Year’s seems like a fine plan. Turns out it’s not the decorations that make the holiday merry and bright - it’s getting enough family time. Happy New Year y’all and may 2011 bring you plenty of time with the ones you most love.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
