As a kid, I used to get more excited about Christmas. As I got older, I got less excited, mainly as I realized what an empty and kind repetive holiday it really was. Now it’s just another day, with some turkey and food at the family’s house. It’s great, but now it’s gone once again.

Sure there will be New Years, the celebration, the food, and watching the ball drop. But then the Christmas lights will go dark. The tree and all that Christmas trash will get hauled out to curb in city, or burned in the country. It will be all gone.

The colorful lights that lit the outside of buildings will be dimmed and dismantled. The season’s joy will either go in the trash or into the attic to be hid away for another year. It will be all over but the cold of winter. We can keep the smiles on our faces for another week, but then we are facing the most brutal month of the year.

Albany doesn’t get a lot of snow. But it gets a lot of cold. January’s heating bills promise to be high. There will be ice and snow, miserable days standing out in the bus stop as we work our way into a new year. It’s going to be winter. There will be no more lights or holiday cheer. Christmas is over!