Yep. Confession time: it’s January 31st, and my Christmas tree is still up.

Not only is it up, it’s still decorated. As in no progress or effort has been made to even remotely consider putting it away. Sure, I brought all my boxes and storage containers in from the garage, but that’s where I stopped. And it’s not the only remnant of the holidays still gracing the house: my red and white snowflake rug in the kitchen is still on display, greeting me each morning and evening. My tiny Nativity scene is still out, Christmas dishes – fortunately washed – sit on the table and haven’t made their way back into the hutch yet, gold garland is still draped across the mantel, shiny red, gold and green ball ornaments fill a large hurricane and I have a wreath of branches with faux ice droplets still hanging on the back door.

The Christmas house flag came down promptly, as did the Christmas lights on the exterior of the house. Everything else, not so much.

What gives?

Energy, or lack of – I think. It’s certainly not a lack of time. Granted, I’ve had busy weekends since the first of the year, but…really? I can’t be bothered to skip Moonshiners for one week and put away the holidays? Of course not. Maybe it’s simply my annual desire to make Christmas last as long as possible, although I thought 2011/2012 was the end of that.

Since I’m fairly ashamed of the fact that the largest Christmas symbol in the casa is still standing tall and proud (though not illuminated by my eight strands of lights – because that would be too much even for me), I’ve arranged the front window shutters in such a way that passersby cannot see the tree lurking just on the other side. Oh, if only they could see the rest of the décor.

During last night’s exercise sesh, I noticed something that I hadn’t bothered to see since the end of December: numerous homes with Christmas still lingering.

At various points during my four-mile journey, I saw shiny red metallic wreaths still hung on doors – and not on hidden, away-from-the-public-eye back doors, on front doors.

White twinkle lights were still wrapped around trees in front yards. And they’re shamelessly still lit up.

Two houses had driveways that were lined with those plastic candy canes that stick into the ground. And they were also twinkling away.

So I guess today I’m thankful that I’m clearly not the only one either a) paralyzed by laziness, or b) wanting to keep the holidays around a little longer. While there’s something nice about making Christmas last 1/6 of the year, I’m vowing to make this weekend the weekend that Christmas makes its way back to the garage. Except for the tree, because I have some excellent Valentine’s Day hearts that I might swap the ornaments out for.