The end of holidays.

The holidays are finished.  After two weeks of family and friends far from where I normally live and work, the time has come to return to my other home.  January 4 2016 will without doubt be a return to normal life for most people.  While I’m driving across the southern half of Ontario returning to Ottawa and Gatineau, children will be riding yellow busses or walking along finally snow-covered sidewalks to school.  Their teachers, and anyone else who has had varying measures of holiday time over the past two weeks will be in their cars or on busses and trains returning to work.  I am looking forward to a return to normal life.  Nothing begins a new year better than actually living and working as a way of putting resolutions into action.

The end of the holiday season usually takes the form of a fade to normalcy.  Christmas decorations are taken down in homes with trees being disposed of in methods ranging from a trip to the municipal landfill, bonfires, or simply being left outside as a habitat for winter birds.  Children are bored and restless, but reluctant to admit they miss the friendship and intellectual stimulation school brings.  A visit with Mr. Six this afternoon confirmed this observation.  Shopping centres are deserted.  Few sensible people feel like buying anything else after nearly two months of consumption-driven celebration.  The temperatures have finally turned colder, a damp, chilling cold too.  This is stay inside and watch television at night weather.  This morning in church, the Christmas season technically was still in effect, but singing Christmas carols next to a decorated, towering spruce felt awkward, even if it was fully within the parameters of the church calendar.  I suppose it is proof the secular world still has no control over religion.

The last two full days of the holidays were well spent for me.  A rambling drive was taken on Saturday that began with a couple of stops in the hometown (there’s something wholesome about getting a free calendar from a local hardware store) and then we headed north.  Along the way we visited a liquidation store that is somewhat of a shrine to the thrifty culture of this region.  The giant warehouse on the property of a former grain elevator was surrounded by the vehicles of bargain hunters.  Inside, the equivalent of gold fever for the cheap was taking place.  Mothers and wives were scavenging through bins, looking for clothing for their husbands and children.  A man was eagerly eyeing dented cans on a shelf in the grocery aisle.  I looked wearily at the shelf of medicines and personal care items.  Would you buy a bottle of cough syrup not in a paper carton and missing the safety seal on the cap?

From the land of liquidation we proceeded north towards MacGregor Point Provincial Park on Lake Huron.  Soon after arriving, we met friends and the fun began.  In a knoll surrounded by cedars with a view of the shore, a fire was made.  Coffee was brewed, soup was heated, and cheese sandwiches grilled.  Songs were sung and made up.  A walk through the woods and cosy winter camps followed.  It was a perfect outdoor winter afternoon with a contented trip home.

I had my final holiday visit with my sister and her family today.  As I said before, the children were restless.  They need a return to first grade and nursery school.  The belongings I had left throughout my parent’s house and the new ones I obtained over the past two weeks were rounded up this evening and most were put into the car so the trip can more easily begin in the morning.  I hope it’s a safe drive back on the road to normal, everyday life after what was really a happy holiday.