my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘holiday’ Category

You know those belated birthday cards that you send to people when you forgot to send one on time? I saw a card once that said that by sending it late, the person was extending their celebration of their birthday. Like a birthday week.

So here is my Martin Luther King, Jr. quote to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Week:

As I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart … many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don’t mix, they say. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.”

Here’s a little video of the Lionel train the boys got for Christmas from my parents:

We decorated our Christmas tree (J9 was outvoted on getting a natural tree, so we assembled our ancient artificial tree) and hung the stockings with care. (Click the thumbnail for a medium-sized version of this picture, then click the medium-sized version to see a full-size version.) UPDATE: People with radio faces shouldn’t make video blogs. But click on my picture if you’re brave.

The cat is very curious–this is his first Christmas–and we are concerned that he might climb the Christmas tree and knock it over. I am trying to think of something heavy that I can place on the base of the stand to keep it from tipping.

We have a tradition of buying or making new ornaments every year, which is something my mom did for my family when we were kids. There are old ornaments on the tree dated 1972, and there may be one or two that are older that don’t have dates. My favorite is a red bicycle (no kidding) that my mom gave me when I was in high school or possibly middle school.

For a few years, members of our family and J9 and I were getting “Our First Christmas Together” and “Our 2nd…” etc., but somewhere along the way, we kind of let that tradition go… maybe about the time we started focussing our Christmas traditions on the kids.

A couple years ago, my older sister made us some snow-filled ornaments. They are clear plastic, hollow, and she filled them with some kind of fake snow, then labeled each of the four for each member of our family. The kids love them–and today J9′s nephews are here, marveling at how the snow got inside the ornaments.

What, if any, Christmas ornament stories do you have?