I know I said I was continuing the New Year’s Countdown through Twelfth Night 
— Tuesday — but now that our tree is (finally) down and all the wreaths and garlands and Santas are packed up and I’ve broken almost every one of my resolutions already, I’m sort of over the holidays and ready to move on … to another holiday, that is. Does your space feel empty without all those Christmas festive touches? I’m always glad to get my house back after turning it over to Christmas for a month, but I miss the whimsy of holiday decor — plus, it covers up the cat hair 
and distracts from the dust. So I keep the wintery things (snow people, mainly) out and gradually add red heart-y Valentine’s Day things, such as those cute heart “trees” and heart candles I put on the mantle after taking off the Christmas stars and angels. On the table by our front door — my absolute favorite piece of furniture in our whole house 
because so far in almost five years of marriage it’s the only one my husband and I have bought together — I’ve got a couple red and wintery serving pieces plus red and green candles I keep out until spring just because I like to. I added a touch of 
Valentine’s Day: A wonderful mini folding photo album out of handmade paper that my younger daughter found at Sojourns, a Fair Trade shop in Birmingham, Ala., and put in my Christmas stocking. Adorable! In our kitchen, I dismantled the bowl of shiny Christmas ornaments that sat on the table and replaced it with three red heart candles. I love the clean look of red on white. Every year around this time I’m so grateful for my grandmother’s advice to always buy red. “You can use it for three out of four seasons,” she said, “and you can always find red things on sale.” So true. Thanks, Grandma. See? I was listening.
Welcome to the first Saturday of 2009 and the ninth day in Cathy’s New Year’s Countdown for a tip on dismantling Christmas at your house. Look, even if you are one of those wonderfully organized people who already have (almost) all the holiday things wrapped, packed, labeled and back in the closet where they belong, you probably have a snowperson here and a Christmas candle there, still hanging around. And of course all the rest of us are staring at the tree that needs taking down today — or is that only me? Anyway, I admit I’m only so-so at housekeeping and downright bad at organization and in no way should I go around dispensing advice on these subjects, but I do love that wonderful feeling when everything is clean and uncluttered and efficient. Granted, because I’m inherently lazy and content to live like a slob, I don’t enjoy that feeling very often. But I know how to get it without much effort, so here’s a quick and easy route to post-holiday satisfaction: When you finally take it all down and put it all up, challenge yourself to 1) Throw/give away three things you don’t use but keep in storage anyway (this is where you can guiltlessly get rid of all those ugly Santas your aunt keeps giving you) and 2) Reorganize so you can easily put your hands on the essential part of your family holidays (the stockings, the Christmas CDs, the Advent calendar) that you spent two weeks trying to find in 2008. Do these things, and I promise you December 2009 will be a little less stressful. Not much, but a little. And isn’t that good enough? Check back for day no. 10 in Cathy’s New Year Countdown.
Welcome to the fifth day of Cathy’s New Year Countdown. It’s been nice to take a couple days off of shopping for/making/eating holiday goodies, but the break is over and it’s back to the kitchen for New Year’s. I know, I know — you were just there a few days ago. But listen. My friend Cheryl has the perfect and most delicious recipe for the remaining festivities, whether you’re going to a party and need to take something or hosting a party and need to feed the multitude. It’s good for football munching and open-house buffets. It’s even perfect to give as New Year’s gifts like you said you’d do instead of giving Christmas gifts. (Remember you said that?) Plus, you’ve probably got all the ingredients on hand already, especially if your friend’s civic club was selling pecans this fall and you mistakenly bought six bags and wondered what you’d ever do with them. Now you know. Here’s the recipe, and check back tomorrow for the sixth day in Cathy’s New Year Countdown.
Welcome to the fourth day in Cathy’s New Year Countdown. It’s the Monday after Christmas. The stockings are down, the presents are done and the tree looks sort of lonely sitting there all by itself. Post-Christmas blues, anyone? Here’s a trick to pick yourself up out of your holiday funk. Gather together all the January magazine issues you didn’t have time to read before Christmas, brew some good coffee or pour your favorite wine and enjoy some good old-fashioned escapism. You deserve it, and I promise you’ll have a whole new attitude when you’re done. For instance, right now Vogue wants to show me how to dress cheap and chic and Instyle has tips on making the most of what I have (but how do they know what I have?) and dressing slim. Lucky offers 564 ways to step up my style. Southern Living has the coziest comfort food and easy ideas to relax my rooms. And I can “feel calmer now” with Real Simple’s 20 essential organizing lists (although the thought of 20 lists is not calming at all, seems to me) and learn must-try recipes from Hawaii’s star chef with Coastal Living. See, don’t you feel better already? Now, if somebody would just actually do all those things for me, 2009 would be practically perfect. Anyway, check back tomorrow for the fifth day of Cathy’s New Year Countdown.
On the second day of Cathy’s New Year Countdown, it’s time to do your part for the economy: Get out there and spend your Christmas money. On yourself. Look, you were good all December. You got everybody everything on their lists and you did it within your budget while ignoring all temptation to treat yourself. You resisted the pull of those luxurious cashmere sweaters that felt so good, those fabulous high-heeled pumps that called out your name, that gorgeous jacket you accidentally tried on. But your job as a giver is done now! It’s over. You did good and everybody’s happy. Time to reward yourself. And, listen, all this talk about sales and bargains and slashed prices are true right now. Go shopping this weekend and I promise you can get about three times the value for your money. Really. I promise. If you don’t believe me, check out Web sites such as 
All I can say is, wow — having Captain Adorable around for Christmas made it the best holiday ever! Our 9-month-old grandson considered the Dec. 25 festivities further proof that the world is full of fascinating things to touch, squeeze, throw, pinch and put in his mouth. My family had a wonderful Christmas and I hope yours did the same. In fact, it’s still a party around here — well, not right now since I’m the only one up at 5 a.m. and everyone else is sleeping it off. But still. We like to keep the good times going, unlike a former sister-in-law who literally — and I mean absolutely quite literally — began dismantling the tree as soon as the last wrappings were 
torn off and everyone was sitting around in a post-present daze. “Can you reach that string of lights?” she’d ask before we’d even had time for that third cup of Christmas morning coffee. Sheesh. I’m not that eager to get back to normal. So let’s keep things rolling with Cathy’s New Year Countdown as we count down the original 12 Days of Christmas to Tweflth Night, or Jan. 6. That seems like a better tradition than packing things up as soon as the stockings are unhung. For Christmas countdown Part 2, I’ll continue holiday-ing with tips, ideas, suggestions and all things festive. Ready? For Day No. 1, here’s my ode to Dec. 26 (after all, why should Dec. 25 have all the fun?):
Welcome to Day No. 2 in Cathy’s 12 Days Before Christmas Countdown. It’s Christmas Eve — time to get those stockings up. And if you still can’t find them (when 
you unpack the Easter decorations in a couple months, they’ll be there as wrappings for your china eggs) but don’t want to brave the crowds to buy replacements, try this incredibly stylish alternative my friend Marlene does at her house. Can you see what she’s used in place of stockings? Look closer. She’s got Santa hats up around her fireplace — turned upside down, they’re the perfect Christmas “stocking.” Fabulous idea! But then, she’s that sort of stylishly fabulous person. I think she just lets me be her friend for comic relief. Check back tomorrow for Day No. 1 in Cathy’s Christmas Countdown.
I wasn’t going to reveal this to everybody but my husband said I had to since 
the blogosphere is all about honesty and sincerity and thruthiness — right? — so the plain simple fact is I only put our tree up yesterday. Yesterday. As in four days before Christmas. I know, I know. Friends were shocked and appalled. Family members kept checking in anxiously on my (non) progress. How did this happen? I’m not quite sure. It’s not that I’m anti-tree. I put my mom’s up for her. I oohed and ahhed over everybody else’s trees. I just never got around to doing my own. I didn’t do it the weekend after Thanksgiving because I was gone and I was gone the next weekend, too, and then I had the Sinus Infection From Hell and then suddenly it seemed too close to time 
to take it down to put it up. And I was sort of approaching it as an experiment: How would I feel if I didn’t put a tree up? As Dec. 25 got closer, I got my answer: Not good. So up it went on Monday and everybody has been properly impressed. I have had the stockings up since Dec. 1, though, so there you are. And here’s the thing: Our Christmas tree is not one of those beautifully color-coordinated and themed trees. I think those are pretty, but I don’t do it myself. Nope. Our tree is like a family scrapbook — one with green stickery things that the cats climb up. We’ve got 20-year-old kindergarten wreaths and baby Jesuses sharing branch time with vacation souvenirs and mementos of favorite things and good times. Now, that’s a Christmas tree.
It’s Day No. 3 in Cathy’s 12 Days Before Christmas Countdown. If your home looks a little bare and you’ve got company coming soon, try this quick and festive decorating trick using things I promise you’ve got around your house. First, find a pretty clear bowl — how about that one you got as a wedding present and have never ever used? Second, unearth those boxes of solid-colored glass Christmas balls you bought on sale two years ago because you thought maybe someday you might want to hand-letter names and dates on them for personalized gifts but then later realized that really you never will and what are you going to do with boxes of solid-colored glass Christmas balls? Third, pile (carefully) the glass balls in the bowl, put your creation where 
everybody can see it and receive compliments for being an innovative and talented decorator. I know this sounds way too simple, but believe me: Its effectiveness far outweighs the effort you’ll put into it. And you get twice the decorating power since this looks cheerful and colorful in daylight and glows quite elegantly at night. If you’re so inclined, you can get all fancy and use glass balls of different sizes or coordinate different containers (bowls, vases, margarita glasses) of various colors for a pretty impressive display. Check back tomorrow for Day No. 2 in Cathy’s Christmas Countdown for a new take on hanging Christmas stockings.
Coffee with Cathy 