DETROIT – I loved Christmas and New Year's Eve, the whole holiday season.
It is always great to gather with friends and family. Cookie baking, lights, Christmas tree, holiday music, ribbons and bows and a crackling fire. I loved it all.
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So, why am I so glad that it is over? Because I'm exhausted, that is why. It nearly killed me. I am grateful for the chance to rest.
Both my daughters were home for the holidays, the older one with our two fabulous grandsons who stayed with us for two weeks. They are ages 3 and 1. Let me talk about how much respect I have for the parents of young children. I have a vague memory of when our daughters were 3 and 1, but for the most part, the blessing of time has blurred many of the more exhausting memories.
It is a 24-hour-a-day proposition. They eat around the clock. They sleep hardly ever. At the end of each day, our house appeared to have been ransacked, though it was actually just the residual chaos of one afternoon of hard play.
I guess the problem is that Christmas is the season of too much: Too much food, too much celebrating, maybe even too much family.
Like that rich chocolate cake, and the second large piece you just cannot resist, it tastes so good, but the stomachache is inevitable.
I am not complaining. I love it all. I would not change a thing.
But it reminds me of that familiar verse: To all things there is a season. I am just saying, thank goodness that season is over.
It is time to get rid of the tree, box up the ornaments, scrape the peanut butter off the cat, and move on into the new year. It feels good to sit back without all the holiday chaos.
Give it 11 months and I will be ready to go again.