Drag It Out

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Drag It Out

I am sitting in my living room looking at a beautiful Christmas tree and listening to Christmas music.

I know.

Christmas was over a week ago.

No matter how old I get, I have a hard time letting go of the symbols and goodwill and memories the holidays bring. It seems each year I find reasons to keep the tree up longer.

You have all heard of the 12 Days of Christmas. Well, I am single-handedly changing that to the 24 Days of Christmas. It is a unilateral action. It is not required that anybody comply with my new rule, but anyone who feels as I do might want to consider joining me.

The retailers hit on this kind of idea some years ago. When I was a child, no one started selling Christmas stuff until we were finished with Thanksgiving. Today, most stores are decorated and stocked for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Retailers wanted to extend the selling season. So they just went ahead and did it. I want to extend the celebrating season. So I am just going to do it.

A lot of folks jump out of bed Christmas morning, run downstairs, rip off the expensive paper that surrounds their gifts, and feast on the generosity of friends and family. This lasts about one hour, depending on how many dogs might be trying to get into the gift boxes or sniff your new stuff. So at my house we have to add about 20 minutes that we call “Dog Time” on Christmas morning. 

The actual Christmas morning ritual is over quickly even with the “dog time” added on. The run-up to Christmas is very long. So I think it's perfectly acceptable to extend the actual enjoyment of things “Christmassy."

When we were younger, we always got the dogs a really big rawhide bone. It was so much fun watching them prance around with that bone firmly gripped in their dog fangs. There was method to our madness. Once they had their bones, we were free to open gifts and eat homemade goodies while they were distracted.

We once we had a dog that loved the big bone so much he wouldn’t eat it. I think that is when that old saying about “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” got started. But I digress.

In fact, his recorded time one year was eleven months of carrying around that big rawhide bone that got blacker, uglier, and smellier with each month. Somehow when November rolled around, he seemed to know a new one would soon be coming, so he ate the old one.

Our pets can often teach us lessons. The lessen we learned from our dogs is that it is OK to let Christmas keep you happy all year.

Nevertheless, for sanitary and humane reasons we stopped that tradition. The first Christmas morning the dog did not find the expected bone under the tree was a disappointment indeed. He got even with us by eating all the pumpkin pies that were in the kitchen on the counter while we were opening gifts. I suppose we should be glad he didn’t carry the pies around for 11 months.

As an aside, can you imagine the mess multiple pumpkin pies can cause as they go through the plumbing of a large, disappointed dog?

Perhaps it is best if you do not try.

So January brings the bills.  Time to belly up to the bank and pay off the credit cards. But with my new plan the agony of bill paying will be eased by the joy a continuing Christmas.

No matter how hard the new year might be for all of us, it never seems to lessen our anticipation of the next December.