Jan. 6th, 2009 10:09 pm
In the box for another year
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muckefuckIt occurred to me tonight that Christmas decorating season lasts a solid month for us: The stockings have to be up by December 5th or there'll be nothing for the Good Bishop to fill with nuts and chocolate, and if you're going to hang them you might as well decorate the mantel, too; the tree comes down on the Epiphany because, well, that's the official end to it all. Next year, it will be even longer since Advent starts on the 29th of November, and now that we have a proper Christmas box, it will be more than just a ring of candles that gets set out on that day. Maybe next year we won't overbuy so terribly on the holiday sweets, but I doubt it. I just emptied out the stockings so I could pack them and, I swear, between those and the marzipan on the sideboard, we have enough bonbons to last us clear to Easter.
This is also the latest we've ever delayed opening presents and I have to ask: where do Italians find the patience? Normally, I aim for Hogmanay (i.e. New Year's Eve), the traditional time of exchange in Scotland, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu can't contain himself until then, so it usually ends up being Holy Innocents (Dec. 28th) or whenever I get back from visiting my family in St Louis. But after that tense discussion on the 29th, neither of us was in any mood to unwrap anything. So our little stack in tasteful blue paper became an 800-pound gorilla that sat untouched for another week until now-or-never time rolled around. So, truthfully, I felt less glad than relieved to finally have that moment behind us.
Fortunately, it's not just colourless winter days ahead of us now. The lull between Christmastide and Spring Festival is less than three weeks this year, so before we know it, we'll be unpacking red banners with New Year's couplets and dangling longevity knots from the houseplants. I doubt we'll be hosting our annual banquet, however, since the timing is very inconvenient, but count on jiaozi and noodle soup for the two of us at least.
This is also the latest we've ever delayed opening presents and I have to ask: where do Italians find the patience? Normally, I aim for Hogmanay (i.e. New Year's Eve), the traditional time of exchange in Scotland, but
monshu can't contain himself until then, so it usually ends up being Holy Innocents (Dec. 28th) or whenever I get back from visiting my family in St Louis. But after that tense discussion on the 29th, neither of us was in any mood to unwrap anything. So our little stack in tasteful blue paper became an 800-pound gorilla that sat untouched for another week until now-or-never time rolled around. So, truthfully, I felt less glad than relieved to finally have that moment behind us.Fortunately, it's not just colourless winter days ahead of us now. The lull between Christmastide and Spring Festival is less than three weeks this year, so before we know it, we'll be unpacking red banners with New Year's couplets and dangling longevity knots from the houseplants. I doubt we'll be hosting our annual banquet, however, since the timing is very inconvenient, but count on jiaozi and noodle soup for the two of us at least.
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