Thursday, December 22, 2005

Merry Solstice

Our answer to too much materialism at Christmas: Open your presents on Winter Solstice instead. Celebrate the birth of mother nature's coldest season by giving each other a bunch of stuff. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Ella was hoping we had waited in line for the Xbox 360 like all of the other parents who truly love their children, but she seemed equally as happy with the LeapFrog Shopping Cart. And too bad if she's not because I've wanted that shopping cart for years! They stopped making it a couple of years ago, it was going for ridiculous amounts after the fact on Ebay, and I just so happened to see it in the Value City ad one week last month because Value City sells LeapFrog's discontinued items. SCORE! How's that for a heart warming tale of Christmas materialism?

Speaking of Christmas, its officially NOT a religious holiday for me. I'm tired of pretending. This is an idea I've been whispering for the past few years, even gathering the moxy to say it to my own mother this year, who tries so hard to get Christmas to work simultaneously in the world of Santa AND Baby Jesus. (For example, 2 years ago she gave me a porcelain ornament that had Santa kneeling at Baby Jesus' manger, and even suggesting that it was the "perfect picture of what Christmas is all about." Gasp!) Anyway, I'm tired of feeling all guilty about loving the gatherings, parties, lights, gifts, and food and just trying to work the Jesus angle in here and there to pretend that I know the real "Reason for the Season." For me, its a family holiday, celebrating the end of a year, another year together, marked with parties, food, and presents. Religious carols and services will always hold a special place in Christmas tradition for me, but a round of "Silent Night" and a trip to church on Christmas Eve hardly makes this holiday all about the babe in the manger. This does not denounce a belief in or appreciation for Jesus, simply a proclamation that I'm not going to pretend that Jesus is why I celebrate this time of year. I mean, thanks Jesus for having a birthday and all to give us an excuse, but weren't you born in August or something?

How's that for random Yuletide musings?

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