Well, Hello! 2012!

The holiday season is nearly over. Now that may seem like a brash statement for January 3rd. But in reality today is only the 9th day of Christmas. True that, the 12 days of Christmas run from December 25th until January 6th, Epiphany. Being the purist we are we will celebrate the season as long as we can.

Because of our new annual tradition of getting a cold in December, we didn’t get the Christmas tree up this year until December 23rd; a new late for us. It wasn’t fully decorated until Christmas Eve. It still is fresh standing in the corner of the living room. It is happy and so am I. I know my neighbors must think we are nuts, we have the only outside Christmas decoration still up. Yes the LED lights are glowing brightly in the crisp cool air.

Come to think of it, we are having the last laugh. All throughout December, while our neighbors’ decorations were up, we were experiencing one of the warmest early winters in recent history. Now our decorations are up and the temperatures are seasonal. Somehow this feels more like Christmas than before the weekend.

Speaking of LED lights, this is the first year we have experimented with them. I must say the outcome is mixed. There are 120 lights on the tree and it is consuming less power than two bulbs did on last year’s tree. The color is vivid and intense and really splashes across the tree when we look at it. However, and this is a really big however, the LED lights do not put out as much light as the old bulbs did. The corner where the tree stands is actually pretty dark. We looked for some “warm white” LEDS after Christmas but we could not find any.

In fact, the after Christmas decorations sales were pretty dismal. Usually the days after Christmas yield tremendous bargains; 50%, 75% and even 90% off as the days progress. This year, there were almost no Christmas decorations left on December 26th. I have a theory that the manufacturers were expecting a bad Christmas season so they turned out less product but it turned out to be a pretty good one and the product ran out before Christmas. Oh well, sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some.

One thing that is not missing this year is Christmas Cheer. The holidays seemed more upbeat and lively than in recent years, and I for one am glad to see that. Oh MY!