Christmas aftermath

Getting organized for Christmas is bad enough, but then suddenly the holidays are over, all the leftovers are either eaten or no longer appealing, the Christmas tree droops reproachfully, dropping needles on the empty floor and the maybe one or two sad presents that haven’t been delivered yet. All the digital pictures to sort and print, and kids with no concept of post-holiday lines dying to exchange their duplicate Barbie with Swappable Heads—really rather Borq Queenish—or use their Build-a-Bear gift cards. You need to find space in your house for the cool presents you really wanted, and figure out what on earth to do with the giant homemade Books of the Bible wooden puzzle. A week left til payday, all the December paycheck already spent, time to check that the escrow account paid the property taxes, and will the Alternative Minimum Tax hit us this year? Another afternoon of sorting and purging the year’s files, and washing the footie pajamas you finally managed to pry off of your little Batman. No wonder people can’t take the holidays. Whew.