I am always amazed how the anticipation of Christmas grows and grows in intensity, then, the moment the date has passed, it ends immediately, like a popped balloon, and I’m left with a feeling of shock and an immediate pressure to pick up the pieces. There’s no decrescendo, no gentle descent back into normal. On the twenty-sixth, people are pulling down decorations, tearing down the tree. The radio stations go back to their regular cycle of music, stores start putting out Valentine’s Day stuff. We live in a move-on kind of culture, don’t we? Where we  anticipate and look forward to something, then once it’s arrived, we’re over it. I…