Christmas is Over (from Utah Vestibule)

Christmas is over.

That's what my sister-in-law said, annoyed at a commercial on TV.

But it's not.

The local radio station that plays the worst Christmas music on Earth starting in early November stops abruptly at midnight on December 26. Done. Christmas is over.

But it's not.

This is when it's Christmas for me. Advent, not only this year but especially this year, is sturm und drang. It is work and suffering and preparation in many ways. It is ridiculous rituals that we love and school stuff we have to finish up and snow shoveling and not enough salt for the porch and mopping the floors for the 96th time that afternoon.

But this is Christmas. This is rest and glow. This is foraging for cookies in my mother-in-law's dining room and watching Dr. Who while knitting in the recliner. This is listening to my perfect Pandora radio station I've created, to Nat King Cole and Bing and Dean and Vince Guaraldi sing Silent Night White Christmas I've been dreaming of santa claus coming to town. This is sleeping in and Mike isn't working and so the kids have two parents to bother instead of just me and did I mention sleeping in? Someone else cooks, or doesn't. Someone else cleans, or doesn't. Kids play and I take a couple advil and rest.

It's a short Christmas after what seemed like a short Advent but it actually was long. So bewildering. I'll be chalking the doorposts in a week and that seems ridiculous already.

But it's not over yet.