Sunday, January 03, 2010

Packing it away

Christmas is gone from my house. Packed away and put away into the Christmas closet for another year. I had a big tree this year, and Bob decorated it, so I had 7 strings of lights and all the ornaments in the closet on the tree. Every year I pull out the Christmas egg, the smuckers jelly lid with a picture of Santa glued in the top, the felt and paperclip ice skates, and the little god reindeer with Timmy written across it. Every year when the kids come home they head right for the tree to find their ornaments. I put Timmy up in its usual spot in front and up high, and Timmy Pat could not find it. I told him it was there and had probably slipped down a branch or two. He was here yesterday, and looked for it again, still could not find it. So today I methodically took every ornament off, put them in their boxes and then took each string on=f lights down, looking all the while for Timmy. I could not find it at all. I then decided that since it has been on my tree for over 33 years that I MUST find it. I very methodically cut each branch off the tree and piled it right beside me on the floor, I got down to the bare trunk and still no gold Timmy!!! Now I was starting to panic, even called Tim to make sure he had not pocketed it for his own house and he promised me he had not,
By this time it is midnight, and I was tired, but knew I had to find it before I went to bed or I would not sleep. I went down to the garage, and dumped what little cord wood was still in it out of the wheelbarrow and tugged the empty wheel barrow up the stairs into the house. I sat right beside it and picked up every branch, cutting them into smaller pieces, all the while searching for a glint of gold, I finally got down to the last few branches and still no Timmy. I picked up the last branch remaining on the floor, the very first branch I cut off the tree. And there hanging on the tiny branch was the little gold reindeer named Timmy. I called Tim and told him it was found and he was very pleased!
I finished putting away everything Christmas and got it all stowed back into the closet for another year. I might even get around to taking the boxes of my Christmas village, down to the garage this weekend; they have been sitting in the hall for a year, right where I left them when I took everything down last year. Bob will be over tomorrow to take down the outside lights.
It takes so long to get everything out and ready, and then you are so busy you can’t sit and relax and enjoy it, and then before you know it, it is all over again. Maybe I should think about leaving it up for a whole year. The neighbors would REALLY start wondering about me then!

11 comments:

Anji said...

I'm so glad you found Timmy, it's the same here only Rob has to be able to see the decorations he had when he was a boy. I'm plucking up the courage to put ours away next week. It's so bare when the tree is taken down.

Mary Lou said...

It is isn't it Anji! Almost like a cold wind blew all the warmth away!

Loretta said...

Hi...first time here and I had to comment. I understand your search. I too have those priceless school day keepsakes. I would do anything to find a lost one. Happy New Year.

Rain Trueax said...

good going on finding Timmy. I didn't do a tree and really didn't do any Christmas decorations. Heck,I didn't even send out Christmas cards. Does that make me a Scrooge? *s*

edt said...

Packed the WEE tree away in its old vacume cleaner cardboard box with a plastic carrier bag over the top to keep the dust off. It lives in the garage between Christmasses. I'm glad you found Timmy. That was sure some search :)

Unknown said...

What a nice story to read. Firstly I thought "Timmy" was a picture of Tim when he was a little boy, I overlooked that it was a little 33 years old "reindeer" :-)
I'm glad you found Timmy at last.:-)

Mary Lou said...

Yeah, Timmy is about 1" by 1 1/2" and THIN the only thaing that saved him was the glint of the flashlight on the brass! Yes, I had the flashlight out to concentrate my search. Sure did not want to lose "Timmy"...and did you know that peanut butter works GREAT on removing pine pitch from your hands? Feels kinda yucky rubbing it in like soap though, but hey, what ever works!

Dick said...

We took ours down Saturday, too. Decided that the outside weather was as good then as it was going to be so got those down, too. Didn't have the drama that you did with yours, though.

I did leave a tree up all year once. My Christmas 2005 tree, the one just after Annie died, was still up the following year. I left right after the New Year on my solo Snowbird trip and was getting ready for it between Christmas & then, so just didn't get around to taking it down. Of course it was an artificial tree- it would be too dangerous to leave a real tree up that long. I'll be the first to admit that it looked pretty odd in the middle of summer 2006.

Mary Lou said...

Trust me Dick, when I say I have been tempted many times!! Changing the decor out with the seasons...

Brenda said...

I'm glad Timmy was found! You're a great Momma Mary lou.

Dick said...

Mary Lou, I think from what Jude said another time on her blog is that Haloscan is doing away with the free system. It will still be available but for a fee. She didn't know what the fee was going to be.