Holiday Celebration Question....

So Son #1 asked me lastnight " Mom since we don't technically celebrate Christmas, can we celebrate all the holidays and just have a 3 week long holiday," I am thinking I will have him research what the celebrations for all of these holidays entail and go from there... We already have Yule and Christmas figured out, so i guess he is at least part of the way there.

Hubby was fussing about the whole "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" thing... his thinking is that it has been Merry Christmas forever and why should it be changed now to be PC. My take on the whole thing is that everyone is entitled to their own belief system, or none at all. To expect everyone to honor one holiday above all the others is wrong. Christianity may be predominant here but that doesn't take away from the beauty and traditions of other cultures and religions. Which leads into why I dislike this time of year.... " It is Christmas, be kind to your fellow man... buy things to show people that you love them... Call that Aunt you ignore the rest of the year... give to charity..... Really folks this is stuff that should be done all year long. Life doesn't only happen one day of the year. Charity's need donations all the time. Auntie may be gone tomorrow so make it a point to put some effort into the relationship if you care to have one. Being kind to your fellow man is a no brainer, if everyone was kind to one person everyday think of how many lives would be touched. Spend time with the people you love, at the end of it all stuff is just that.. stuff. If your kids died tomorrow wouldn't you rather have memories than a closet of stuff you have to figure out what to do with?

Do I celebrate Christmas...no I don't. Do we have a Christmas tree, yes we do. The kids like the decorations and frankly as a Pagan the tree is an item of worship ( a little bit of Yule ) , My family all gets together to bake and watch TV and eat way too much food. Somewhere in all of that chaos memories are being made that my kids will have to hold on to ( or need therapy for) into the later years of their lives. In 5 years are they going to remember the Wii game that they got... probably not. Are they going to remember tickling someone til they pee'd . Definitely. Those are the kind of things that matter. Do we do it simply because it is the end of December and that is what people do? ... nope we do this sort of thing as much as we can. The calendar shouldn't dictate when you choose to live, or celebrate, or be kind. Everyday could be it for you. So while you are in the mall waiting an hour and a half in line to have your crying kiddo sit on some old man's lap...( I have several pictures of when this trauma was inflicted on me.. I was sitting on my Mom who sat on Santa cause I wasn't having any of that!!) try to remember that this moment in time, the fact that your daughters hair is crazy from the fit she threw in line or the fact that your son's shirt has ketchup on it from lunch in the food court is what is real. These are the things in life that matter, not the perfect picture of the smiling children, the fact that in that moment in that time and place you had your children and they were cranky and imperfect and real life was happening.