I just read Rebecca's blog, and she says the kids got them up at 5am today. Noah and I got to bed at about 5am. (In my "vacation" period, I get very immersed in data and writing, and we develop a sleep schedule that involves bedtime around 4 or 5 am, and getting up sometime between 1 and 3. It's all very collegiate.)
Christmas Day here in Hermosa Beach is grey and cool. It's also very quiet--none of the usual mild street noise filtering through the windows. No big plans; we'll go see a movie (Harry Potter, and the fact that we are going represents the resolution of a long series of disagreements and negotiations, and Noah's enormously generous offer to go with me, since his antipathy to all things Potter is eclipsed only by his hatred of all things Bush). The movie-going is one of my childhood traditions, so that will be nice.
Of course, Hanukkah starts at sundown, so at around 5pm, we'll switch holidays. I'll be making latkes and we'll light our baby menorah using the gorgeous silver-ringed candles we found at Papyrus. We'll entertain Kibble with our rendition of Baruch atah... and give him his first-day-of-Hanukkah toy.
Throughout the day, I hope to keep thinking of the two holidays' themes of redemption and light. Translated into my own beliefs, they mean that this is a day of love for family and friends, a day of kindness toward others, and giving them the benefit of the doubt (if anyone cuts us off in traffic on the way to the movie, for example!), a day of gentleness, a day of patience, a day of giving more to others than I get myself. I'll say more in another post about that last one, but here, now, I want to end on a lofty note. These should be the themes of every day, but thank goodness, at least we have one day to bring them into focus.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays to all.
2 comments:
I've got nothing to say, but I feel this blog is begging for--and, of course, most deserving of--comments, and I wanted to be the first. So, here it is, my comment. So you've got that going for you, which is nice.
Happy and Merry Everything! I didn't realize that this happy holidays discussion was so big in America right now. A couple of weeks ago I had to give a lecture about America at a university here and I had seen a small article about what the Bush's would put on their Christmas cards. I thought it was such a funny topic so I spoke about it during the lecture for little while. It provoked further discussion among the students about America's Christian Right. The basic topic of the discussion with the students at the end of the lecture was America's hypocrisy in their eyes. These are students from all over Europe and especially from the Eastern part. I hate to say it, but most of them really detest America. They spoke with such anger about everything you could expect. This happy holidays discussion was just one more reminder to them of America gone wrong. Anyway, as Larry would say, where's my Judaism!
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