Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive

While everyone else is working, I'm typing this post from the comfort of my bed, not unlike the way I've spent most mornings the past two weeks of winter break. Except that I kinda had my hopes set on working today as it's the first day back to school. There's a sick part of me that's actually looking forward to seeing my students with all their new flashy phones, ipads, and Ugg boots that they surely got for Christmas. But then I remembered around 2:00 AM that probably not many teachers would need a sub today. So, I guess it's back to work tomorrow, for me. 

My house is still adorned with Christmas decorations. I've been procrastinating on taking them down for a number of reasons:

1. I need to go to Menards and get one of those big Christmas storage containers. This is not money I want to spend. Money that will sit in my garage, unnoticed eleven months out of the year.
2. My house looks so homey, so inviting, with all the decorations. And after my roommate took down all of our Halloween decorations, I realized how boring and generic this house looks without holiday decor.
3. Valentine's Day is still a bit too far away. For some reason, this holiday is not like the others, when it's perfectly acceptable to start preparing months in advance.
4. I have two small trees. One in the living room, and one in my bedroom. And I really enjoy the way the lights bring warmth to each room at night (and by night, I mean 3:00 when it starts to get dark around here these days.) It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The christmas trees are really the big reason. I just love them. They give off the perfect amount of glow so it a) looks like someone might be home even when we're not and b) allows me to walk through the house at night without turning on any lights. I prefer to think of them as glorified nightlights. 

I like my Christmas tree lights so much, in fact, that I planned to leave the one in my bedroom up all year. It's far less traditional looking with it's long, slender frame. I took off the few adorning ornaments and told myself it looks like those lighted plants you sometimes see in office spaces. Yes?

Plus, the only real plant we have in this house is dying a slow but sure death. It's horrible. I pull dead leaves off that thing on a regular basis; there are very few green ones left. And once that plant is officially dead, we will have no greenery in this house, real or fake. See? This house needs my tree!

But then, about ten minutes ago, for no apparent reason, the lights on the tree went out.

And my heart sank a bit.

I think the universe is trying to tell me that Christmas is, indeed, over.

Maybe I should take that trip to Menards today and use my time off to pack up my Christmas spirit until next year.

Or... maybe I'll take advantage of some clearance sales and get some new lights for my tree!