Putting Christmas Away

We put the last of the Christmas decor away this afternoon. We leave for Nashville in the morning to spend the long weekend at the Opryland Hotel, just us. I didn't want to come back into a new year with last year's Christmas things still here and there. All of our decor fits into 1 tote and 1 small box. My friend Donna has 20 totes of decorations, so I think I am doing well to have just one. As I wrapped the few pretty glass ornaments I have in bubble wrap, I wondered, just for a moment,  if I would touch them again next year. The moment passed, but just to be sure the ornaments would survive another trip down the scary pull down attic stairs, I wrote "Fragile" on the outside of the box in pretty curlicue letters. A reminder to whoever brought them down that the box held something precious. A few shiny glass ice cream cone ornaments, testaments of my dear friends' care for me. A gold engraved ornament from 1977, our one year anniversary. A ceramic angel, made by my daughter in elementary school years ago. All have stories, have been touched many times, now finding their way back into the attic. Today we put all that away, because tomorrow we drive into a new year, and a new adventure.