The Twelfth Day

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
My true love gave to me...
(A head cold)

December 25th is the first of the twelve days of Christmas, so Twelfth Night is January 5, the eve of Epiphany. After holiday excess, that Louisiana-style King's Cake doesn't look too good. You would have to search to find a lurid cake like that in Seattle, but in other parts of the country, today is another celebration.

I like holidays, but enough is enough. I've been baking, wrapping, decorating, shopping, cleaning, cooking for weeks and my hands are telling me. I felt smug avoiding the cold John came down with right after the kids left, but it finally caught up with me too, as things tend to do in January.

It's considered bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up past Twelfth Night, and if you do, you're supposed to burn them on Shrove Tuesday, February 9th.  There are many old pagan superstitions (or more kindly, traditions) wrapped up in the Liturgical Calendar.  

Everything is finally packed away here and hauled back up in the attic, with the exception of the arbor lights which I take down around Ground Hogs Day.  Maybe I'll wait until the 9th.  Why buck tradition?

The Liturgical Calendar is now moving into a period called "Ordinary Time."  Which has a nice sound to it.  

Our sunny dry weather is history. The clouds are back and the temperature is as cold as it can get and still be rain instead of snow.  Which is to say, it's an ordinary bone-chilling January day in Seattle.

But just up in the foothills, 30 miles outside of Seattle, there's plenty of beautiful snow.  Yesterday Dolly sent me this picture of Spanky at the barn. 

"Could I please go back in my cozy stall now?"