Christmas is gone and past

I *do* know of people who always leave their tree up till what they

call "Old Old Christmas Day" (= Jan 18th, Old Twelfth Night, perhaps).

We make a point both of keeping it past Old Christmas Day (Jan 6th),

and of worrying about it after then. But, being of lazy disposition,

we often leave it up till the end of January and even, one year, well

into February. But that is looking for trouble, I figure.



The decorations, but not the lights, were stripped yesterday and when

I got up this morning, the tree was intact and entire. Within an

hour, it was reduced to this. The boughs willl go to my compost pile

and the trunk will dry out and get burnt.



The livingroom has reverted to its eleven-month normalcy.