Ah, the great post-Christmas letdown. One more week until we have to take down the tree (give or take a month or so) and say goodbye to the holiday season for another year; seven days of respite where we get to sit back in a sea of wadded up wrapping paper bits and reflect on all the ways our shopping mania has manifested in things we never really needed and probably won’t ever use.
In my corner, a large brown leather purse I begged Santa for despite the fact I have no matching shoes and rarely leave the house with anything except my diaper bag. A box of Devil Dogs my New England relatives kindly sent after realizing we didn’t have them here on the West Coast. Some silver earrings to which I am allergic, and a monogrammed recipe book for all my microwaving needs.
Over by my husband, an XBox 360, which will soon join our Playstation, GameCube and original Xbox in the pile of gaming devices we used a grand total of twice. Some cologne of unknown vintage. A box of LifeSavers, and Tenacious D shirt.
The kids- oh, the kids. It is embarrassing, really. Piles upon piles of rattles, clothes in various sizes; and the toys- oh the toys! Curious George and Minnie Mouse and Angelina Ballerina, all arrayed in Christmas finery and bows. DVDs and coloring books and trainsets, all forlornly sitting untouched because the first thing my daughter opened was a $2 Teletubby cake topper that she promptly ran off with and refused to look at or play with anything else.
My housekeeper Angela smiled grimly when she arrived today. It was a daunting sight, I’m sure. I asked her how her Christmas was; her husband is suffering from cancer, and he had asked to go to a local small town that is famous for their apple pies. She told me he wasn’t feeling well enough to go, so they stayed home, but they were planning on going down to Mexico the following weekend and fixing up some old toys for the children at a local church.
I had planned on assuaging my post holiday blues by hitting the super awesome sales at the mall, and maybe hitting Starbucks for a gingerbread latte before they went away. But instead, I went to the store to buy a fresh apple pie for Angela to bring to her husband, and sorting through the kids’ toys for things for her to bring to her church. And today was better than yesterday.
Jesvet
