Merry Christmas!

The first bad thing about Christmas?  Starbucks is closed.  (At least in Columbus Indiana).

The second bad thing?  ….I can’t think of a second.   I love Christmas.  I don’t get people who are grumpy at Christmastime.   What’s not to love?   Good food, presents, magic, and family.   Ok, maybe for some people the family part isn’t so fun – I’m lucky in that regard – but everything else?   Golden.

We’re not a religious Christmas family.  We’re a no religion, dual holiday family,  Joshua being a secular Jew from Israel and me being a once Lutheran but now something of a neo-pagan,(according to the quiz on beliefnet.org)  earth loving type of person.  With a great respect for tradition.  We do Hannukah, Christmas, Easter, Passover – all the big ones.   We celebrate in the spirit of tradition and family and joy.   And for joy, nothing beats the Christmas season.

This year has been especially good.   As I mentioned the other day, we have snow, so there’s been sledding.   There has been treasure hunting.   My kids are growing so gifts are slightly more thoughtfully asked for, though Santa still makes his yearly visit, providing much of the magic portion of the holiday.   This year there was even a visit to a small country church where my brother Doug is the lay minister.  He ran the service and gave the sermon; and though there is much that I no longer connect with in the traditional Lutheran ceremony, I love the music and the candle lighting at the end.   And my brother thrives in that setting, which is wonderful to see.

This morning, of course, was all about the gifts.   Gifts opened in haste and enjoyed at leisure.  (and still being enjoyed in bed – I hear my son’s new Nintendo DS chirping away)  A day of lounging, playing, talking and finally, eating.   An almost perfect day.

It’s always a little sad to see Christmas go; to know that tomorrow the magic of the season will be a little farther behind us, at least until next December.   But as Maya has said, “If it was Christmas every day, it wouldn’t be special anymore.”

Merry Christmas everyone.

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