Oh. My. God. Did You Throw Baby Jesus Out With The Chrimbo Tree?

It is sad here in the Blue Hizzle. :'(

We took down all the Holiday decorations this past weekend. This is always a trauma in our house. 'Cus we just love being so festive. And we like to be appropriately festive, so there will be no Valentines until Feb. 1st. That means nice clean, bare spaces in our home for like THREE WHOLE WEEKS!!

I know, I know, first you're thinking, "You seriously still had all your stuff up until January 12th?? And next, you're wondering why in the world, I wouldn't want to a nice clean house to start off a nice new year, right?

Well that first one is easy. We do the whole Twelve Days of Christmas thing. This means Christmas ain't over 'til the Magi leave gold in your wooden shoe! (google Three Kings Day if you aren't familiar with this tradition) So the holiday ends on January 6. Buuuuuuuuttttttttt....

My birthday is January 8. :) And this is where our own special family tradition comes in.

You see, January 8 falls exactly one week after January 1, and exactly two weeks after December 25th. Fun with facts, right? (You know it is, quit frontin'. You're totally jeali I have such a cool bday.) And yes, every time someone asks what day of the week is Christmas on this year and someone answers back, I totally say to myself, "that's what day my birthday will be on this year." ;) Which is really cool and very fun and sometimes even leads to super awesome combination gifts, which AxlBlue and I made even "awesomer" by marrying on December 17. (Yeah, I know the symmetry of the dates is a little off there, but my Mom said, "You can't get married on Christmas and you better pick a Saturday... so there you have it.) AnnaBirthMas presents are wicked cool!! But it was actually this whole combo gift giving thing that caused the kerfuffle back in 1979.

I was three, about to turn four in two weeks, on Christmas Day. For some reason or other, the arrival of an amazing life size cardboard gingerbread house from my FavoriteLateAunty (yes, it WAS totally as cool as it sounds) had me convinced this day was indeed my birthday. I was quite concerned that my mother was busy in the kitchen making a pork roast for dinner and showed no signs of baking a cake. I "politely suggested" (read: whined) one too many times that she get busy on said cake, and she turned to me and said, "Young lady, this is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's birthday, not yours, now stop nagging me G-d dammit!"

WELL. Imagine my shockaroo!!

I felt so bad, I cried to BeadyJesus (another disaster story...cutting it short for now, let's just say he had a bead for a face) for an hour in the snow village under our tree. I never meant to steal His special day. My mom also felt horrible and apologized. In making it up to me, she offered to leave the Christmas tree up until my birthday, TWO WHOLE DAYS after Twelfth Night!! I was ecstatic. And a tradition was born, as my mother, to this day, leaves her tree up until after my birthday as often as her work schedule allows. And dear Axl eagerly adopted the practice, and now the young Blues defend it to the death. And beyond... because it's sad when the tree and all the Yule and Hannukah and New Year's stuff gets boxed away...

Which leads to the answer to the other question. No, I don't like a clean house for the new year. It's barren and ugly and can't possibly be a harbinger of good luck for the next 365 days. That's my answer and I'm stickin' to it. But I am curious about how you do it.

Boxing Day, in particular. Do you really put it ALL away? That quickly? Right in the middle of Christmastide? I'd die. I truly would. I would feel like I threw Baby Jesus out with the bathwater. (But I would enjoy a national holiday the day after Christmas so I could rest up.) I notice a lot of my neighbors throw the tree out right before New Year's Eve. If you do this, is it because you do like a "clean start" as it were, to the new year? And those of you who leave it up 'til Valentine's Day or even Easter? Is it too avoid the sadness of a naked house in the dead of winter?

Tell me in the comments. I really want to know.

                 And as EVER.... <3With Love From Me2U, Love, Raley Blue <3