Hollydaze Wishes

[catelin]

The 25th is usually quiet for me. Christmas Eve was always my family's big night, before my grandmother died and took everyone's already slight sense of holiday obligation with her. We still have our small traditions, even with my little family of three. Potato soup, talking about what we are grateful for, opening presents...we always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning and I have no idea why. We never had lots of gifts, something I am glad of as I see how the season has become such an awful excuse for bloated toad-like consumerism. I pity the several friends I have whose holidays consist of careful calculations of amounts spent so as to be "enough" for someone. The politics of the Christmas gift is something that amazes me. I am grateful that my family never indulged that particular holiday notion.

My children put a lot of thought into their small gifts--a candle with three scents in one from my youngest, a book of recipes and a handwritten story from my older one. My gift to them this year was a small aquarium for their room. Not that they don't get the full-on spoiled experience from their dad. He's the provider of all the Playstations, GameBoys, and the like. Still, it made me feel good to see both of the kids setting the techie toys aside and intently reading their fish-tending books, earnestly conversing every few minutes about what fish they should choose and why.

The boys spend today with their dad, giving me a quiet house until tomorrow morning. It used to make me sad, spending Christmas alone. Now I look forward to it and enjoy the chance to lounge around in my PJs all day. I putter around the house between napping, eating, and reading. There's plenty of Three Stooges to enjoy on cable. And, of course, there's my perennial holiday favorite: the Law & Order marathon (which probably amounts to only one or two extra episodes, since it's on practically 24-hours-a-day anyhow...but still, it's the thought that counts!).

Tomorrow we head to my folks' house where my holiday fare will probably consist of tamales, hummus, gorgonzola ravioli, baba ganoush, green chile soup and homemade cherry pie. It used to drive me nuts that we had no traditional holiday food stuffs like my friends. My grandmother used to hold the line when it came to turkey; but other than that, there was no telling what we'd end up eating on the holiday. Anything went--and it still does. Now I appreciate the crazy-quilt approach to celebrating. It's only fitting, after all; our extended family is an odd spiritual mix of atheist, agnostic, pagan, Christian, and Jew. Our holidays are akin to blowing confetti out of a cannon. It's a big mess, but it's our mess and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

So here's to all of us and our big messy beautiful lives! Love and peace and namaste to you all!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_riomaggiore/]

buon natale to you. i do believe i've seen all the 'law and order' episodes--but i still like to argue my way through the verdicts.
be at peace and enjoy YOUR day. ciao!

[fireangel-999.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow we head to my folks' house where my holiday fare will probably consist of tamales, hummus, gorgonzola ravioli, baba ganoush, green chile soup and homemade cherry pie.

OMG I want to come to your house! *drooooool*

[iamkatia.livejournal.com]

our glorious messy beautiful lives - hear hear!

*raises a toast*


:D

[haleiwatown.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm, potato soup and beautiful mess. I love having you on my friends list. You're lovely.

Merry, merry.

[da-rosas.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm not buddhist or anything (despite my icon), but the namaste is, I think sort of buddhist and this is my only spiritual-religious type icon I have (I need some more, hehe). Otherwise, I'm not 'anything' as such, but since Christmas has echoed in my cultural life all my life, I actually went to a church last night for their service; not that I figured out the singing and stuff (I don't even know the words to the simpler Christmas carols), but it was nice not to be alone. Emotionally, mentally, I'm struggling this month so it was good to be there (and part of the reason are the holidays and the expected familial/social aspects, which have painful associations for me).

Your spread sounds FABULOUS! I would be greedy and invite myself over if I could, heheh. Your family rocks. *grins*

Namaste (whatever that means) plus strength, courage, and peace always,
rosas

[normalgrrl.livejournal.com]

Your holidays sound nice.

I wish you fun in your pjs!!

[lolliejean.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely way to celebrate, all of it. We're having lasagna at my daughter's house. Happy day my friend! xo ~ Lori

Merry Xmas

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lj_sucks_/]

It's funny how one always assumes that your own family's way of spending Christmas must be how everybody else does it. One of the big shocks of marrying rothko was finding out that her family open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. Maybe it's an American thing? It somehow seems like sacrilege to me…I suppose it's how you'd feel if the rest of your family had a big turkey meal on the day before Thanksgiving.

We had Christmas curry! Cooked it from scratch, using ghee and khoa and all kinds of spices in the sauce. Supposedly it's a recipe with over a hundred years of history, albeit not a true traditional Indian recipe. There was also a lasagna as a "plan B" in case the curry didn't turn out well. The guests all loved it, though, so we sent them home with lasagna.

[hollow-warrior.livejournal.com]

Happy holidays! They can be so extreme, commercialism and family traumadrama. I spent my first christmas away from my parents. Strange but necessary.

Haha, blowing confetti out of a cannon, lol.

[mockngbirdgirl.livejournal.com]

namaste and metta to you.....

Hope you're doing well...

[anoisblue.livejournal.com]

I watched the Law and Order marathon, too. My favorite is the really smart guy on Criminal Intent. Happy Holidays, Cat, and may your new year be as wonderful as I expect it will be.

[raindog.livejournal.com]

Hey you beautiful, messy CC!! (Big you're not!!!) It was such a great treat to spend those days together. Your boys are more beautiful than we can even know. I'm still basking in the afterglow of our visit. And taunting my fellow Townes fans with the story of seeing his documentary in Austin, no less.

The drive up to Fort Worth was glorious. We need to talk before you take your sojourn over there. Enchanted Rock truly is, and there's an enchanted road on which to travel there.

Please distribute hugs to all, and collect a big one for yourself.

Much love from Iowa,
E