Why does Christmas get "old" so fast?

I can’t believe that Christmas was just two days ago and already people are hanging it up for another year. My thought is that at this time of the year we should just be getting started. We have the whole New Year to kick off yet. Why should anybody be done celebrating? Do they really feel that Christmas is one day, when it is a whole season? Or do they think that the season of Christmas is that entire month of frantically searching for the right gifts and once the gifts are opened the season is over?

When I asked people how their Christmas was a quite a few answered with, “I’m glad it’s over.” And they weren’t being “bah-humbug” about it. They just wanted to get on with the rest of their lives.

To be honest, it is easy for me to feel that way too. But when I think about it, it takes me too long to decorate the house and put up the tree for me to feel that any of this is over. I could easily sing Christmas carols all year long. And did I sew that poinsettia skirt to wear one day of the year? Why does this guy get to dress like this all the time and I can’t?

Probably for the same reason that I can't eat cookies all the time either.

I hope you had a wonderful day, whether you are done with it or not.

Doesn't take much to make me feel at home

I was exhausted. I had been up since four am on Saturday, April 11, 2009. It was now nine in the morning on Sunday, and I hadn’t lain down anywhere in that time and had only caught a few minutes sleep on the plane from Atlanta to Lima. But I was finally there, the home-base for Cross Cultural Solutions in Ayacucho, Peru. A simple but clean three-story building on a noisy street corner. My home for the next week.

Inside and up one flight of stairs were familiar faces. Megan, Gayle and Tina, my partners for the week, all who had arrived the day before. We had met each other via the internet and swapped pictures and experiences. It was like I had known them all along. Most importantly, English was their first language!

We had a quick orientation, then I went to my room to unpack, take a short nap and what would be my only hot shower the whole time I was there. Lunch that noon – and most days – was chicken in tomato paste with rice and mixed vegetables.

That afternoon, Gayle and I walked up to the Plaza. What a beautiful city square, full of shops, churches, statues of famous people and fantastic views of the surrounding hills. And only a five minute walk from our home base. We walked here at least once a day, so many pictures of that will be coming.

That evening however, still exhausted, fighting a headache and feeling the effects of the high altitude, I wanted to lay low and go to bed early. That would not happen. Instead I went down to the kitchen to socialize.

Including the four of us who had just arrived, there were three students who had been staying at the home base for a while already. Harriet, Angelina and Harry. They had decided to make cookies that afternoon. It was Easter Sunday and so the logical shape – and easy – to make was round, in the shape of Easter eggs. Then we all decorated them. Colors for frosting were limited, but we managed.

I felt like I had come home.