How are you celebrating Christmas?
Posted by richrobinson 8 years, 4 months ago to The Gulch: General
I am wondering what Gulchers are doing for Christmas. We have an interesting mix in the Gulch but regardless of beliefs I think its fine to celebrate and enjoy the holiday. My wife is active in her Church so I'll be going there tonight and then a nice quiet day tomorrow. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Jan
Many flavors of 'good time'!
Jan
You're a cool Jan, you are thoughtful and always have your head screwed on the right way.
Best for 2016
Jan, head screwed on, but sometimes at a tilt
Jan
Merry, joyful and safe Christmas to all you gulchers. Enjoy it now because there is a tornado of crap coming from the POTUS and his buddy Bloomburg. He only has one more year to destroy the Constitution and our rights.
I hope you aren't too lonely today. I'm glad you'll get to see your daughter and grandkids tomorrow!
going to go home to visit; the only Christmas (ex-
cept 1978, when on military service) I would not
have been with my family, due to finances, and not
being able to afford bus fare from Richmond to
Charlottesville, where my nephew usually picked
me up to take to Augusta County. But my neph-
ew came all the way to Richmond, and took me
home, and on 26 Dec I had him take me to
the station in Charlottesville (the family paid
for the one-way bus fare). So at least I did get
to be with them. We watched the old black&
white "Scrooge" movie on a tape or DVD. We
went to my sister's, too. So it was a nice Christ-
mas after all, at least for me. And I had been
told the family wanted me there.
Then we played Cards Against Humanity.
This is a gross, crude and vulgar card game, aggressively politically incorrect and hence ideally suited to Australians.
There were no prayers, no toasts, no speeches, drunks were not arrested nor were there any secret police recordings, all got home safely after!
The house cat kept clear of most of the ribaldry, and no complaints were heard from the neighbors.
Apart from that, a good time was had by all.
It will be well into May by the time I finish with these! :)
We sent each of them home with a sort of Golden Classic in two language...
The receptionist at one of my doctors' offices said, "Merry Christmas" to me a week ago and I replied like I always do, with "Happy Solstice!" I had to explain what the solstice was and that I "celebrated" it because it meant the days start to get longer. Then she apologized for saying merry christmas. "No, sweetie, you don't need to apologize. You can say merry christmas to me all day long; it doesn't bother me at all."
I went to my dad's on christmas eve. He had a bad stroke about 4 years ago on Dec 12. Had a nice dinner of teriyaki chicken that my sister made and I even convinced my brother-in-law to eat at the table with us (he normally slips back to their living area downstairs). It was a rare occasion where my sister was in a talkative mood and we had a pleasant visit. But it was the first year that my dad didn't seem to truly grasp that it was christmas and I could barely coax him into opening his presents.
I'll close with a short lament about a couple of specific Christians, his pastor and the widowed wife of his best friend. My dad was a very active member of his evangelical baptist church, donated thousands of dollars to it and was one of a small crew that built the physical church building about 15 years ago. For the first year after the stroke his pastor came around pretty much weekly. My sister took him to church about every other week, it's a struggle to get him in and out of the car. Skip ahead to present day and his pastor rarely shows up for a visit. Very christian of him.
The woman, coincidentally named Mary, has been our friend since the mid 1960's. She, her Navy husband and three kids lived across the street from us. The kids were the same age as my brother and I so we were best friends for years. Her husband and my dad were very close and liked a lot of the same things, could both fix anything and just got along great. Right after my dad's stroke she never drove the paltry 8 miles to the hospital to see him - until I stopped by and kidnapped her. I did the same thing several times while he was in rehab for 3 months. She lives less than 2 miles away and has been to visit him at his house about 3 times. I'm sure it's upsetting to her, but for a woman who claims to have a very strong faith in god and drives to church every week she sure isn't demonstrating very christian behavior. He loves visitors and even though dementia is taking over he still recognizes people he's known for a long time and can hold reasonable conversations with them, especially if they focus on things from the past. He won't remember they were there 30 minutes later but he enjoys it while they're there.
How disappointing that these two people, very close friends with my dad for many years, and claiming to be devout christians, and they don't even come for a 30 minute visit.
Q: Why don't pagans get mad and insist on people saying "Happy Yule"?
A: "Probably because we aren't assholes."
:)
The special thing for the evening is that we have an 8-foot tree we built of plywood, with live candles. At one point we light all the candles, turn off all lights in the house, and enjoy a quiet, introspective moment of peace and love. I get to make a little speech of appreciation for these wonderful friends, and to any newcomers point out the symbolism of this ceremony:
-- Evergreens were special to the ancient pagans for whom it represented life continuing through the cold, dark months;
-- The solstice was celebrated for the return of the sun;
-- Later cultures celebrated the birthday of some mythical figure (possibly an extraterrestrial) who wanted to save humanity by bringing love and peace back into the world.
-- Birthdays are marked with making a wish and blowing out candles on a cake.
So our little activity is a mélange of all those symbolisms, as our guests get to make a silent wish and meditate on it, then blow out one candle. The candles go out one by one, and there are a few extra ones to dedicate to absent friends or, sometimes, dear departed who should not be forgotten. The tallest blokes are tasked with blowing out the highest candles. See the tree here: http://www.gamepuzzles.com/xmascard.htm
Each year there is a different formula for the order in which attendees take their turn. This year it was for how long any pair had been together. We had newly-weds on hand, though the unattached (count 0) got to go up first. This game was rigged so my husband and I, at 45 years, would get to be last.
After this solemn/hilarious interlude I give out paychecks, gifts, special mementos and a choice of interesting finds from all the art shows where I exhibit and bring home cool stuff, like left-handed spatulas or home-made flavored lip balm or dried-vegetable-filled trivets. We also made up a special gizmo as stocking stuffers this year that everyone got, whether they wanted it or not (http://www.gamepuzzles.com/spinners.h.... The puzzle-minded also get to rifle through my box of new puzzle acquisitions.
One of the mementos is given to the participants of a special game the crew plays behind the scenes at the Renaissance Festival: a bound volume of the entire script of 9 weekends of episodes of "Sequitur" on nice parchment. You are welcome to adopt this game for any group of your own. Just please mention it was invented by Kate Jones. Rules are here: http://www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog4...
The hardiest guests stay for lively conversations until 4AM. One of our people was born on Dec. 25, so he gets cash equal to his years in various nefarious forms. For his 53rd birthday he received a box of 5300 pennies. For his 65th it was all gold dollars. This year brought him 67 dollar bills rolled up into 67tight little cylinders.
I wish all Gulchers a sane, happy, rational, convivial holiday season and the energy to make next year better all around. And keep laughter in your lives. We don't have to take any of the dumb stuff seriously.
Rotary club plum pudding with custard.
And everyone wearing little as its so hot.
I am going camping in a couple of days.
Its a freecamping site tucked away in the bush. Costs $5/ 24 hours to use the drop toilet. And thats all. Perfect.
Best to all my gulchmates.
Ever get to Abel Tasman? My cousin has a business there:
http://www.pegasuspark.co.nz/
Thanks for the link - horses on the beach that was a fair while ago for me.
Your cuzzie is a wee way too far north for me. My sport has our nationals up that way in 2016 so i will nearby but not in the National Park.
Keep in touch FFA
My BW has been on one of those ancestry web sites and discovered a heretofore unknown 2nd cousin. We'll be entertaining her this afternoon.
Then, we'll be looking forward to the otherwise forbidden root beer floats on New Year's Eve. Such is the life of a sedentary (very) old person. Not exactly boring, but nothing to get excited about either. So -- why am I bothering to write this? I just want to let you all know what you've got to look forward to.
It turns out that her cousin lives less than 1/2 mile from us. Small world, huh? She is 84 and came over with her 60 year old daughter who is doing a geneology thing. They spent the afternoon comparing notes and discovering relatives from each other. I sat in my comfy chair and watched. Better than TV.
I told them a bit about my involvement in things Randian. The 84 year old lady and her 60 year old daughter were familiar with Rand and the 3 Atlas movies, but were not objectivist. The BW and traded pics of relatives, and had she had info on those we never knew, and we had pics of relatives they never knew. And the most weird thing, she lived in a sub division just across the highway from ours, less than 1/2 mile away all these years (20+ at least).Merry Christman and a healthy and prosperous New Year to you and yours.
I hope everyone else has had a happy Christmas! Unfortunately I fear what 2016 is bringing us.
And this type 2 diabetic was asked to bring something sweet.
I could tell the always weird girlfriend my brother moved back in with in Delaware after the passage of decades was in charge of the presents this Christmas..
This particular brother would never send me a box with two apples, another box with 6 pears plus a plastic bag with chocolate speckled popcorn in it and yet another box filled with tasty-looking little cakes and assorted candies.
Problem solved. That last box is big enough for those who may show up with a sweet tooth.
Well cobber she does not appreciate your diabetic needs.
But i appreciate your dry wit and humour Dino through your posts here. Keep them coming we like to hear Dino roar.
Hear me ROAR
(I'd beat my chest like King Kong but my arms are too small. Hardly as pathetic as T-Rex, though).
Christmas music in the background, tree and decorations lit up and snow covering everything.
Merry Christmas, all!
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