The Week Between Christmas & New Years

When you enter my neighborhood, the very first house displays a large Christmas countdown clock. I swear they put it up immediately after they finishing their pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.

The first time I drive past it, I think it’s too early. A week later, and I find it charming. At about two weeks out I find myself filled with anticipation when it tells me the number of days until Santa takes flight. And then when it gets to single digits, I start to despise it.

And then there’s now, when the clock is blinking “00.”

I feel a mix of emotions when driving past the countdown clock that lacks a countdown I’m relieved that Christmas is over. Then I feel guilt for feeling relief. That is followed by a sense of accomplishment. By God, I made it. I think of all the things I did this Christmas, from the gifting to the cookie baking to the memory making. The important things got done, the love was shared and my exhale is one of exhausted satisfaction.

Interestingly, I rarely think of those things that didn’t get done. Those plans are discarded somewhere among the scraps of torn wrapping paper, cookie crumbs and left-overs. I wonder why I can’t discard them in the weeks before Christmas?

If I could, perhaps I would stop white knuckling my white Christmas.

The Christmas clock doesn’t have much to do at this point in time, and it feels like the rest of world is also done. It’s over. There’s not a whole lot of anticipation. And that is so very sweet.

The week between Christmas and New Years is a chance to just be. I love the chance to focus less on wrapping presents and more on just being present.

I’m going to take this time to be like the Christmas clock. I’m going to blink “00” and countdown to nothing. Until New Year’s Eve, that is.

Shannan Younger is a mom of one living in the Chicago suburbs with her endlessly patient husband. She’s a recovering attorney working for a small nonprofit and she writes from the eye of the hormonal hurricane that swept into her house via her tween daughter at Tween Us. She is a contributor to the book The HerStories Project: Women Explore the Joy, Pain, and Power of Female Friendship. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.