Post-holiday life now back to normal
Published 9:25 am Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Commentary By Danielle Pelkey
The North Jefferson News
Well, the new year is here and it’s time to clean out the closets and get ready for a fresh start. It’s been my tradition for a few years now to take down all of my Christmas decorations the day after Christmas.
This year I had to work on that day, so I took them down at 11 p.m. on Dec. 27. This is a tall task because I take down the Christmas stuff, clean and dust and then put up the pictures and nick nacks that stay up for the rest of the year. I’m not the best housekeeper in the world and there are places on my entertainment center that only get dusted on this faithful night.
This year’s festivities experienced a small setback when our hot water heater exploded on Christmas Eve. It leaked out 40 gallons of water in our laundry room and our carport. What a joy to come home exhausted after a day full of family fun and drive up to a house flooded by a broken hot water heater.
We made it through it and still had a great Christmas holiday.
The broken hot water heater couldn’t be fixed on Christmas day because no stores were open. We went two days without hot showers.
The day after Christmas, I woke up early in the morning and microwaved a bowl full of water. I bathed off while standing in the tub. It was so cold that when I got ready to rinse off, I just took the whole bowl of water and dumped it on me. Believe me when I say that just this little bit of bathing was well-needed. I had to go into work and explain to everyone that I knew my hair was greasy and that I had plans to fix it by tomorrow, if everything went according to my plans.
The next day, my wonderful husband and father fixed our hot water and we enjoyed a night of clean bliss. When my stanky body was finally clean, it was time to clean up the house.
Isn’t it amazing that when your house is completely clean, it feels like all is right with the world? There is a great amount of freedom to be felt when you know that you’re not going to have to clean all night when you get home from work.
I know that it’s not biblical to say that, “cleanliness is next to Godliness” but I think there is a lot of truth to that statement.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the world has finally returned to normal after our Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Work is back to a full five-day-a-week schedule and Raygan is back to her normal sleeping and eating schedule.
I will now breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to next year’s festivities. Man, I love the holidays!