Joanna here.

I love this pause between the astronomical new year — the solstice — and the calendar New Year. A sort of an interregnum comes that doesn't seem to belong to either the old year or the new. It's the time between.

In this time, my creche fills up. Tonight the baby is safe and warm in the manger. The sheep have come in from the pastures to adore the child. The turtle and a hedge hog have finally crawled in. An owl keeps an eye on everything. Angels hover.

Over on the bookcase, the Magi travel toward Jerusalem. They'll arrive on Epiphany, January 6th.The Three Kings, a camel, and a couple of donkey make their way with awe and deliberation, led by an angel.

Me. I'm taking this week off from all worry and all duty. I relax. I think about the year to come and the next story to write. It's a good time.

The dog Mandy agrees with me.

Comments

[Mary Jo Putney]

Joanna, I feel exactly the same way about this week: it's a lovely, languid limbo, a time to catch up and have lunch with friends, not to do much of significance--and sometimes, alas, to wind up tax odds and ends from the old year. *G*

[Sue McCormick]

As I was growing up, this week was full of Christmas visits, the friends in Alton, Illinois (part of Metropolitan St. Louis), sometimes the Indiana Relatives, courtesy Aunts and Uncles. It was all a part of the Christmas season.

Now, my extended family visits in the same way. With married children and grandchildren, no one can spend time with any particular family on any particular day, so our season does indeed stretch to New Years Day or even Epiphany.

And yes, it does, indeed, give special flavor to this time of year.

[Karin]

I am already enjoying the days getting longer, minute by minute; I cherish each bit of extra daylight.

[Linda S]

Yes, my memories are similar to yours, Sue. This was the week to visit and see everyone's tree and eat cookies and fruitcake and drink eggnog. Good times, and as I spent my career in colleges and universities, this week was always a relaxing holiday.

[Sue McCormick]

You sparked a memory! I mentioned visiting the friends in Alton. The mother made a spectacular fruitcake each year; one my father particularly enjoyed. And every year, he would say, "Mrs. Herzog, I think your fruit cake is musty." Just before dismay overtook her, he would add, "I must have another piece." She would fall for this every year!

[Joanna Bourne]

It helps to know that Everybody's Taking These Days Off
so one might as well just relax

... except for the taxes, of course.

[Joanna Bourne]

This sounds so beautiful. So lovely. There's nothing more important than friends and family. This is the very time of the year to see them.

[Joanna Bourne]

Oh, you are so right. So right. That's the most important part of this week. It's the first time, for a long time, when the light's coming back.

[Joanna Bourne]

I've always found fruitcake fascinating. I want to learn to make a perfectly wonderful one.

[Lisa]

My mother would place the Magi on the fireplace mantle and they would travel toward the crèche until epiphany when I was a child. You are the only other person I have heard of who also does this. It is a wonderful memory. We also never take our tree down until after the January 6 which is the end of the Christmas season.

[Joanna Bourne]

I'll keep the creche up a day or two past Epiphany. But a Christmas tree comes down on the sixth. *g*

And the tree only goes up on the 23rd or the 24th. None of this buying them in mid-November. Poor Christmas tree.