WordSisters

Author: cmkraack

  • Happy Clean It All Up Season

    Plastic pumpkins should have been stored in the Halloween bin. A pilgrim waits to be moved with the other handful of Thanksgiving decorations. We’ll need at least a half day to put all the Christmas pretties in the basement. The outdoor lights are red and white, so they will wear well until Valentines Day.

    Even after reducing decorative stuff by many storage containers, there is so much stored.  It’s hard to trash or give away generations of ornaments, candles gifted by folks now passed, a goofy collection of singing stuffed animals. No family member wants to add these to their holiday decorations, but no one is really okay with giving much away.

    New Year’s Day I typically want to write, watch football, chill, but also find my hands impatient to empty the family room of gnomes and the singing animals. The dining room table could be stripped of a tablecloth and brought back to its normal size. I am done with the beloved clutter. Toss the poinsettias. Store the candles. Put away the stockings and hangers. 

    Storage bins, filing cabinets, pretty cloth baskets fill ads staging cleaning as invigorating, fun, a natural activity to fill dark winter weeks. With healthy athletic drinks and granola bars also advertised, there is some implication that marketing genius know of a heart-friendly link between snacks and organizing. The whole clean up season is filled with many opportunities to tweak a back moving boxes, many tiny paper cuts or tree hanging hook snags, eye fatigue correcting holiday card lists. 

    Forbes, the Cleveland Clinic, Simple and others cite the link between a healthy mind and a clean house. You must look hard to find anything suggesting a tidy house is sign of inferiority. House tidiness or messiness are both probably in one of those twenty-seven signs of dementia or fourteen indicators that you are wearing the wrong size shoes. 

    Let those who find new bins and organizing systems satisfying spend what’s left of the holiday dollars. If the tree is put away before friends come over for football’s great Sunday extravaganza and the boxes are near the storage area by Valentine’s Day, consider yourself owner of a moral victory. 

    Warning: The Easter Bunny will not leave eggs in red or green felt holiday socks left hanging anywhere in the house. Even those with pastel plastic grass sticking out the top. Do not insult the little creature.

  • Holiday Traditions

    I could have talked with Santa longer. Maybe left the photography backdrop, grabbed us both a few cookies, and hashed through life experiences. Could he have been the same Santa who visited our house in Luxemburg, WI sixty years ago? Was it possible this was the real guy (at least to schmooze an introvert) with gentle dark eyes, weathered skin and a medium deep voice that wrapped around those sitting nearby

    The Gibraltar Fire and Rescue of Fish Creek, WI held the annual visit and photo with Santa event as a fundraiser. Being a volunteer firefighter in a small community makes every neighbor’s life safer. A firetruck parked outside the small former town hall to answer any major fire call and the Santa team needed to leave. 

    Stuff some money in a firefighter’s boot, fill out limited personal information, and help yourself to cookies or candy while waiting in line. We were not the only people with a dog instead of a child. Thankfully the dogs seemed to accept the event as just another outing while the children struggled to keep their excitement, and hungering for more cookies, under control. 

    Adults drinking eggnog and eating more cookies than the kids, grandparents helping with a third or fourth child while the parents made each one presentable, and a warm feeling of enjoying holiday traditions started December on the right foot. We were there because our two-year-old granddaughter thought meeting Santa frightful but might smile seeing that Rocky liked the old guy. Two of her age group needed everyone’s encouragement in the town hall, including two dogs, to turn off tears and sit near the guy in red. 

    Most of us were strangers, but for forty minutes we shared happiness and hope while playing the roles most appropriate for the time—child, parent, grandparent, community protector, human or canine. Shoulders were nudged and compliments shared about sweaters or bows or big smiles while posing with Santa. “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” flew out of mouths naturally.

    May these last weeks of 2023 bring you calm, peace, health and smiles.  I hope that each of you have someone share a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays greeting. 

    The comfort of traditions brings the warmth of friendship among strangers.

  • Tools of Other Times

    Five dozen white salad plates, four dozen dessert plates, dozens of cheap forks, candle holders, three tubs for ice and canned drinks, red wine glasses, white wine glasses. Grandma’s embroidered tablecloth, a bride’s dark green tablecloth, crocheted dresser scarves made by a great uncle while tending bar in his lakeside tavern. Tools appropriate for other times

    Ornaments from the children’s tree, red plastic sleds, N-gauge train cars, a doll house made by great-grandpa, a toy china cabinet made for great-grandma, filling up shelves needing to be cleared. Prom dresses, a toddlers navy wool coat, a child’s silk Japanese jacket brought home from WWII, all worn by young girls and boys long grown or passed. The stuff of others’ memories kept in a basement closet alongside the extra vacuum and ironing board. 

    I claim ownership of the party tableware gathered for piano recitals, kids’ open houses, book launch parties and gatherings of all sorts. The shelves were a lending library for other’s bridal showers, small weddings, anniversary gatherings. We joked about saving trees and landfill space while piling clothes baskets full of glassware to travel a few miles. Sad to say farewell to the thought of a future soiree, but there’s enough in the upstairs cupboards to host small parties. 

    Thinking about what tools might be necessary or fun for the next decade makes the clearing less emotionally painful even if shoulders and back ache. It’s all about matching what you need with you carry forward. I don’t remember shedding tears when two briefcases went to a thrift shop or tailored suits headed to consignment. Still use one of the tote bags bought to replace the corporate stuff. To be honest I might still be wearing a few sweaters bought for the writing years. 

    Back to work.