The last weekend of 2008

It’s hard to believe that another year is almost behind us as we are now in the final weekend of 2008. The great Christmas Season is waning and many of the presents have been packed away or put into use. We spend a little time contemplating the events of the year and then we start thinking of the new year about to make its entrance.

Way back when I was a kid, my mother was always the first in our neighborhood to get the Christmas decorations up. She usually did it the day after Thanksgiving and that was a signal for the neighbors to get started, too. If she happened to miss starting it that day, the neighbors seemed to wait for their signal and as soon as Mom got hers up, the neighborhood began to glow once again.

She was also the first to take them down. Rarely did any of our decorations last past Dec. 26th, and never the Christmas tree. I think it came down before breakfast. It wasn’t because she didn’t like the tree; it was because it had been up for a month and its spills were dropping fast. The trees in those days also had rather large tree lights which gave off heat, a real danger to a dying tree. More often than not, our tree was turning brown under the lights and could catch fire about anytime.

So it was a safety issue to get that tree out of the house as soon after Christmas as possible. It is a rule that was ingrained in me and continues today. Thankfully, Gator Wife grew up in a similar household where the tree came down soon after Christmas so it was no problem for her. This year’s Christmas tree is down. It caused no, or very little, fire potential as it had tiny lights on an artificial tree to which we switched just last year. So the tree has been packed for another year.

Our Village is also in its final hours. It will probably be down by next weekend, although we don’t have a time table for it to be put away for another year. I personally think this year’s Village was among the best we’ve made through the years. But it has been completely up since Thanksgiving and its time has come.

Some pretty nasty weather is forecast for Saturday so Gator Daughter came over yesterday to give the pups a chance to run off some energy. They will not come Saturday, and Sunday remains “iffy.” They were just here last Thursday, but, nevertheless, we also look forward to her being here. Gator Golden also looks forward to having her sister over. I have absolutely no idea how dogs tell time or know the days of the week, but both dogs know when it’s a weekend and it’s play together time. Ours paces and stares out the window. GD’s sits in front of her back door and gently whimpers.

So as this last 2008 weekend passes by, we start looking forward to a New Year and it will begin mid week as we officially say “good-bye” to one baby that has grown into old age and a new baby arrives to take its place. It will be interesting to see what it grows into. And we’ll resume our place here on Monday.

GiM