The ornaments of time

As this life progresses, I'm continually stunned by things that occur annually, with the last occurrence not seeming so long ago when, in fact, an entire year has passed. My annual summer solstice blog post is an example of this. First days of school, last days of school, big swim meets, Independence Days, vacations, Halloweens -- the days that make lasting impressions burn into the memory, so the next occasion seems sooner than it actually was.

However, there are the less significant events that feel so recent but were actually a year ago. I wrote about one of these moments in 2009, and I'm guessing we approach the first anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown, I'll be marveling how the weeks and months zipped by (the year of coronavirus is a topic for another post). 

Every January, I experience the expedited passage of time in something not so monumental and, really, should be mundane: taking down the Christmas tree.

We wait to get a tree every December until after Michael's birthday. Catholics have a tradition of keeping their tree up to Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, and since we started splurging for better trees rather than the cheap ones at Smith's Marketplace, we can keep the tree up until mid-January without losing many needles. But, one weekend, the ornaments come off, the lights are unstrung, and we put Christmas away.

As the ornaments go back into the containers, I can't help but think that I just did this. The newspapers used to wrap ornaments from years passed are reminders of what was happening 10 years ago -- who was playing well for the Jazz, what things were on sale, and so on. The bittersweet feeling that the holiday season is over and that we're stuck with plain old winter returns. The years blend into each other, just like the ornaments that end up in a different spot in the crates.

The tree went out today. We had been trying to hold out through the inauguration, figuring it could be used for one more celebration, but the tree wouldn't last another week (we probably wouldn't be able to take it down midweek) even if it wasn't losing many needles. I put all the ornaments away, took down the stockings, and returned the crates to the downstairs closet. 

Now it feels like 2021 can really begin. The ornaments will reveal themselves again in 11 months. And a year now, the cycle will repeat.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more