Just one more day

My oldest daughter and I

 Just one more day

to snuggle up close

just one more day

with those I love most

Just one more day

to savor the season

Just one more day

to remember the reason

Just one more day

to take it slow

Just one more day

to bask in the glow

Just one more day

ok- maybe two...

who says the “holiday”

season is through?!

How many times have you wished that something could last just one more day?

I confess that I get the “Christmas blues” after the holidays end. Just a few weeks ago, my mom called me and said “You remember how you used to cry every Christmas?”  Yep.  Sure do.  Thanks for the reminder, Mom!

I remember many Christmas mornings when I was a child,  we’d open presents and there would be one last gift to open… and then the floodgates would come.  So much build up to this one morning- and then it was over before we knew it.

My youngest daughter… all smiles!

But the saddest day ever for me was New Year’s Day.  This was the day we always took down our tree and put the house back in order.  When I think about New Years’s Day, the sound of the vacuum cleaner comes to mind.  And tears- lots of them.  Mainly because I didn’t want to go back to school the next day.

So I always wait to take the tree down until after the girls go back to school.  In fact, I managed to leave it up until the middle of January last year.  Today was going to be the day… until both girls were feeling under the weather and ended up staying home from school.

It was like a mini extension of the Christmas break!  Since the girls were not feeling well, they were so sweet to one another. But imagine my surprise when my youngest came to me in tears this afternoon-

“Momma- what if I missed something special today?  I miss my friends. I really wish I could go to school.”  She cried earnest tears and wanted nothing more than to be with all her friends.

And then my oldest says, “Oh, and by the way, Mom- it’s time.”

“Time for what?” I asked her.

“Umm… the tree, Momma.  You said you were going to take it down today.”

“Well, that’s because I thought you girls were going to be in school.  I am waiting to do it until you all are back in school.”

Our conversation this afternoon reminded me how much my own childhood plays a part in everything I do- or don’t do- with my children.  All this time I have felt like I was “saving” them from the sadness of getting everything back to normal… and here they are begging for it to happen.

So, my “one more day” of having the decorations up seems to have had nothing to do with the girls at all. It’s all about me – not wanting to hear that vacuum running. It’s about me not wanting to go back to school- which I absolutely dreaded with every fiber of my being. I would have done anything to have stayed home just one more day.

I am thankful for God’s grace that allows those memories to soften through the years, and that thankfully, my girls don’t have the same hang-ups that I did as a kid. And hearing my girls’ affirmations that they are ready to get back in the swing of things helps me to see that moving on and letting my past be in the past is a good thing.

But maybe I’ll leave my tree up-

just one more day.