Christmas Bookends

The thing I like about the way we celebrate Christmas is that it’s really hard to have a bad year if it starts and ends with such a great holiday. Christmas upholds our year like bookends, encasing everything that comes between, the good and the bad, with happiness.

Tonight, Twelfth Night, is the end of our Christmas season. As much as we’ve enjoyed it—and this has been a particularly good Christmas—I think we’re ready to see it end. We’ve enjoyed the “time out of time,” but we’re ready to get back into the swing of the normal, everyday. Each of us has a list of everyday songs to add to our MP3 players, to replace the Christmas music we’ve been listening to. We each have books in mind to read or listen to, movies to watch, projects to get going on. Upcoming projects have been commanding our attention.For instance, I’m facing the challenge of marketing my new short story book. It was easy to promote it as a Christmas gift, but now I’m looking for new angles. I’m also working on expanding distribution, which I let slide during the holidays for practical reasons. I’m mailing copies to independent bookstores around Southeast, possibly beyond, hoping they’ll try selling a few copies, as Juneau has.

But there are bigger projects afoot. I think it’s high time that we begin to work on a goal we’ve had since before we moved here: building our own sauna! If we can manage it, this will become the major accomplishment of 2011! It’ll certainly change our lives for the better.

So, with mingled regret and relief we’ll see the Christmas season end tonight, knowing full well that we’ll celebrate it some more before the year’s through, as the circle continues to turn, taking us with it.

This entry was posted in Daily Life and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *