Ahead of time or Behind?

It's the day after Christmas and I'm pretty sure many of my neighbors, one in particular will be aggressively dismantling their holiday decor. While it's early, in a couple of hours I'll see her out there, alone, boxes on the ground, small ladder at the ready, undoing what she was the first one in the neighborhood to do, more than a month ago. The rest of us were quietly savoring our turkey dinners and like a beacon from the Griswalds, her lights illuminated our living room. Like clockwork, it's been that way for more than a month every evening at sundown.
We'll likely see many of her decorations at the street for garbage pickup and there will be valentines in her window before the rest of us have our trees down.
Maybe it's my age, that contemplative period when kids are grown, well pretty much any way; still around but no longer really accountable to their parentals. I can savor, speculate, yes, even give in to a little laziness. Twelve days of Christmas meant to me it was a season, not a day to be done with as soon as the last sugar cookie is gone and the turkey is, well, ready for soup rather than sandwiches. I've been reading, Jim Bishop's THE DAY CHRIST WAS BORN and clearly those events took more than a day. Unlike customary manger scene portrayals, the Wise Men didn't turn up until Jesus was more than eight days old.
I want to see the old CHRISTMAS CAROL on tv, not a ton of contemporary Hallmark made for tv movies, laugh at the Griswalds one more time, maybe pop in a now antiquated "Carol Burnett Show" special.
As an illustrator who sometimes does seasonal work, I'm always thinking six months ahead anyway. Christmas cards need to be finished by June, any holiday magazine submissions now need to have a summer theme. But for the moment, I'll linger; watch the news, run some laundry and bask in the knowledge there is no where I really have to be.
Merry Christmas to all of you and a very happy, safe, productive and Blessed New Year.