I made it.

When I woke up the morning of Christmas Eve, I knew that it would be at least New Year’s Day before I came up for air again.

I was right.

Here it is – several days into the New Year, the tree is finally down, the decorations put away for another year, Christmas letters are read, a new calendar is hung, Matt’s back in Colorado,  and I’ve finally come to the end of the laundry piles.

And there – at the bottom of the last pile was the Christmas table cloth, just like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

We always eat by candlelight on Christmas Eve, and the candles always drip, and I never seem to have time to get the wax off so I can wash it and pack it away.

And so it waited. Until now.

Today’s list includes, finding my iron, several layers of paper towels, layering them with the tablecloth in the middle, and methodically melting away the wax.

It’s a slow job. But one that doesn’t involve thinking, or even much moving. Unlike the other jobs associated with packing away Christmas.

And for me – it signals the end of the holidays; my last task before I can close the book on Christmas 2012.

And then I can finally say, “It is done.”