Put Away Your Toys!
It’s mid-January, and now that the city has (finally!) picked up our tree from the curb, the last of our Christmas decorations are gone, save one. On one of the small bookcase shelves in our living room, bordered by framed photos, are all the figures from our Lego advent calendar. I am particularly fond of the pizza chef and his brick oven. His pizza paddle I recognize as an actual paddle from earlier kits for rowboats.
I know I should scoop them up into the bags where I store all my Lego men in case I should ever want them again for RPG miniatures. They don’t match the décor in the room, or even on the shelf. But they just look so cheery there. And, apart from the Santa figure from December 24, there’s nothing overtly Christmas-y about them. If I moved him to the back, he’d just look like a lumberjack with a dogsled. (Yes, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by dogs in Legoland.) Something about Lego people, with their blocky, yellow heads and perpetual smiles, brightens my day as well as anything else does.
And in drab New Jersey winter—if you can call this winter—that’s important. When I need sun, I settle for turning all the lights on and sitting in our bright yellow living room. And the Legos happen to be directly across from me, so I see them often. So maybe I’ll leave them out on the shelf a while longer. Until just before the next time I need to nag Eileene about clearing up some of her junk.