The Same Sense of Wonder, But With Candles

I hadn't really thought much about this in years past, but having a nephew, and soon-to-be nephews-in-law, I've started giving thought to how I'd handle the holidays for my own kids. And it's gotten me thinking about my childhood memories.

We had no tree, of course. Instead we had a Menorah, a ceremonial candelabra, with candles for each of the eight days of Hanukkah. And instead of putting all the presents out in one shot like the parents of my Christian friends, my parents gave us one or two presents a night for the length of the holiday.

On the one hand it was frustrating. Of course all my sister and I wanted to do was open everything at once. The forced waiting was such a burden on our child mind desires. Former Christian kids...imagine having all your presents sitting under the tree, but having to open them one or two at a time for eight days. The suspense and longing kills you!

But, at the same time, long after my Christian friends had blown through the fun of opening presents, Steph and I were still enjoying the experience. We got eight times the present opening ceremony. And there was a fun sort of suspense once you accepted the fact that you had to wait. You knew you had a full week to open a new toy or two each day. That was kind of cool, and is a good memory now that I'm grown.

What would I like to do for my kids? I think I'd like to take all the best facets of every holiday practice and mash them all up into one uber-holiday. We'd have a tree, put up lights around the house, and burn a menorah. We'd probably do the presents in one blast, but still burn the candles for eight days. If there are any cool traditions from other practices that I haven't yet learned about, maybe we'd roll them in, too. The point of the holidays, for me is togetherness, sharing and fun. Whatever we can do to create great memories, that's what we'll do.

Tree of Lights

I love the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree every year. We always had fake ones growing up, but it always looked so festive and really got me in the mood for the holidays. I couldn't wait to see presents under the tree. Even as an adult just seeing other people's presents under a tree gets me in a joyous mood. I love seeing just a glimpse of trees through people's windows, it can be so beautiful.

I love the tradition of hanging all the ornaments on the tree. I remember doing this with my mom as a kid and just loving unwrapping all the old ornaments and delicately placing them on the tree until the whole thing was covered with colorful memories and lights.

Jason and I agreed that this year will not be a year of big gift buying, but instead I'm hoping to get a real tree for the first time, just a small one. This small tree will give the house a little taste of holiday magic. That's all I'm asking for this year. I'll buy a string of lights and a few cheap ornaments. This and seeing my family for the holidays is all I want for Christmas.

Christmas Lights

I think one of my first entries into this blog had to do with Christmas music. Now, as the holiday season descends on us I find myself plumbing back into that topic for ideas. And again, being the good Jew that I am, I'm going to focus on Christmas.

It's only because Hanukkah has no flash. No glitz. No mascot. It's just not sexy. Christmas, on the other hand, screams "holiday season!" For me the holidays are not about any sort of religious significance. They're about family and friends and generosity of spirit. And anything that reminds me of that makes me smile. That's why I love Christmas lights. They're an ostentatious outward display of inner happiness. And that happiness is contagious.

Plus they can be really beautiful. I remember loving driving around neighborhoods as a kid with my family looking at the decorated houses. I was awe-struck. Back then I'm sure I was also suffering from religion-envy. The most light we had at our house was nine candles that burned for 45 minutes. Nice, but not the same. I used to wonder why we couldn't put up Hanukkah lights, sticking with white and blue for the season. Not a common practice, I guess.

I'm over that, of course. But I'd still drive out of my way to see a particularly beautiful house display. One day I'd like to decorate our house, I think. A nice pastafarian display to really light up the holidays!

The Gift of Giving

Finding the perfect gift for someone can be so challenging, but once you figure it out it's so rewarding for you and the receiver. It feels good to know someone so well that knowing what will make them happy and pleased is very satisfying. I'm not really referring to anything particular, really it's just the idea of finding the perfect present and the feeling you get after you give that present out. Bringing great joy to someone special on a birthday, anniversary, holiday, or just because feels amazing. The light in their eyes, the smile on their face is breathtaking.

The holidays are shortly approaching and I've already given myself the best gift ever- Plane tickets for Jason and I to spend the Christmas holidays for my mom, dad, sister, Allen, and my two beautiful nephews, Kaiden and Blake. I can't wait to see you all, Love you with all my heart!

The Holiday Season Begins

I'd never really thought of Halloween as the beginning of the holiday season, but I think that may be because, as an adult I'd never really taken in part in any of the traditions, apart from dressing up. This year was different.

Clearly I'm food motivated, because as soon as food rituals are wrapped into a holiday it comes alive for me. This year Kate and I prepared a pumpkin for the first time. Long story, but sufficed to say we had a mid-size specimen growing in the front yard of the Stevenson Ln. house. The weeds had gotten a bit out of control. I brought it home, unsure it would come to any use, but hopeful. Last night I gutted it, baked it, and stripped the flesh from the skin in preparation for home-made pumpkin bread. I also prepped and baked the seeds, boiling them first with salt and Herbs du Provence and then baking them with more salt, cinnamon, curry and a little onion powder. Delicious.

So now Halloween is much more firmly tied to the other Autumn celebrations for me, and feels like a friendly distant cousin to Thanksgiving. Given that it seems to tie up summer nicely and drop us with fresh eyes into fall, I think Halloween isn't a stand-alone holiday, but the start of the season. The first stop on a procession of holidays, each with its own charms, tying out the year with New Years.

Who knew I was such a sucker for pumpkin?

Labor Day Oddity

You know that when an entry on this blog starts with, "I know this isn't really a positive, but...", and then follows with some lamebrain attempt to shoehorn the chosen topic into the positive category, it was a rough day for brainstorming. Today is one of those days. I know this isn't really a positive, but it's a funny oddity that makes me laugh. Or at least makes me snicker softly under my breath. Or at least gives me something to write about today.

Why is it that we celebrate Labor Day by not working? Doesn't that seem backwards? Labor Day would seem to be a celebration of effort in all its forms. Why then do we sit on our duffs and do nothing but drink beer all day in honor of the event? That would be like celebrating Independence Day by chaining ourselves to a lorry, or Thanksgiving by adopting an air of entitlement. It's something like clear-cutting a forest on Arbor Day, suffering amnesia on Memorial Day, or NOT causing the decimation of an indigenous culture on Columbus Day.

Labor is the reason for the season. I think, in order to honor the namesake of the holiday, we should spend all 24 hours of Labor Day knee-deep in some sort of grueling physical labor. Some callous-ridden, bone-jarring task that makes us realize just what it really means to labor for our existence. And then, to set Labor Day apart from the rest of the calender, we shouldn't work at all for the other 364 days of the year. Then Labor Day will be what it labors desperately to be. Labor Day, the day that we labor.

And if everybody's just hanging out and being groovy 364 days a year we won't have need anymore for holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

A Short Entry on Long Weekends

One extra day tacked onto the end of a weekend wouldn't seem to be that noteworthy, but it's really the difference between a weekend and a mini-vacation. It doubles the number of days where you're not working and not worried about the following day. For me at least, that's huge. That one extra day of true freedom is enough to decompress from months of unending routine and get back into life with a fresh head.

I would take it a step further. I think it would be smart for businesses to give their employees more long weekends. It would benefit productivity more than would be lost by the extra vacation days. One long weekend say every two months would do wonders for the working population. At that interval the breaks would be spaced out enough to reduce billable impact and make them feel special. They're just distant enough for employees to look forward to them without them feeling completely out of reach, and a hopeful, expectant employee, fresh from their most recent long weekend, is a happier more productive worker.

I know I would be. So Mr. President. Barack, if I may be so bold, sir. Please consider this a formal petition to declare the first Monday of every other month a national holiday. I'll leave it up to you and congress to decide the occasions. I really don't have a preference. National Tacos at Home Day. National Super Plush Carpet Day. Jean Claude Van Damme Day. Whatever. The particulars aren't important. Just give us six long weekends a year along with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, and you'll have a strong, motivated and hopefully more heavily employed workforce in the coming years.

Hell, why don't you take one of those day designations for yourself. I think you deserve it. Barack on, Mr. President.