Season's swan song?

Handmade German Christmas ornament

The Christmas carols are still playing. At least in my car. Though in reality Epiphany is here and most Christmas things are down and put away. Mine included. Still, I am holding on to the belief that Christmas will truly be over for me only after my birthday and so the carols will continue for a few weeks more. 

Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus

Slowly but surely, the world has somehow intruded in. The children are back in school, the early morning traffic is back to an unearthly level of madness and everyone - at least on this side of the world - is gearing themselves up for Chinese New Year. 

My un-pretty but functional Christmas tree

The earth has grown old with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young. The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair, And its soul full of music breaks the air, When the sonf of angels is sung.

Phillips Brooks

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month

Harlan Miller

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.

Augusta E Rundell

Christmas... is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.

Freya Stark