Post-Christmas

I have never been much of a 'leave-the-tree-up-till-Valentine's-Day' kind of person. Perhaps it is the fact that, for nearly 30 years, we gave a big Christmas party the second Saturday in December--which meant that the tree went up almost immediately after Thanksgiving. By Christmas, we were being stabbed by dried-out needles and had to put ourselves on fire-watch because of the pile of tinder we had stacked our presents under.

In any case, we are usually the first in the neighborhood to drag our tree to the curb, and by New Year's, our house has usually lost all vestiges of holiday decoration. The cookies and candy sometimes linger into the new year, but even they are looking pretty sad. Which puts me today firmly in the box-it-up-and store-it, or clear-it-out mode.

This year, I even added to the tradition by setting myself the Herculean task (and I'm talking Augean stables here) of clearing out the refrigerator. Who knew how many pots and jars of weird ingredients lived there? Salad dressings, dabs of jams and jellies too small for any use, orange marmalade, hoisin sauce..tortillas that predate the cliff dwellings out west. Why do I have 4 packages of bacon--two open and half empty, and two apparently awaiting some bacon orgy of the future? Capers and olives and relishes, cheeses and chili sauce, horseradish of a strange hue, and toothpaste-tubes of basil and garlic and tomato paste. I think it is time for a New Year's resolution to cook more simply, without all these bells and whistles. Time to start from scratch (and I'm not saying this just because a few of these items had expiration dates back in 2010...well, maybe), to move on to my pantry, and maybe even my freezer. I may end up finding the lost city of Cibola there, frozen eternally behind the chopped broccoli. Calling Indiana Jones!

Some people find it sad to put Christmas away for the year, but I see it as a breath of fresh air. Here's my new beginning, my new year...one where I will fix what's wrong and capitalize on what's right in my world. Starting with the refrigerator.