The War on Christmas

**blink**

How? What?

Are people in danger of becoming squeezed to death by an animate python of garland? Does the blinking of lights all over town mean an AI has taken over and is systematically plotting humanity's destruction? Are big red, velvet bows carriers of an infectious disease that will eat our three middle toes from our feet, thus making it difficult to walk?

What in the name of cheese and chocolate is going on here?

The war on Christmas indeed. Let us look at Christmas. What are the most common things that we see at Christmas in this country?

Lights. Lots of lights. - Face it. It's dark, dreary and miserable in the winter. Who doesn't like to see something bright, shining, and colorful in the midst of all that? I grew up in a city with a large Jewish community. One guy's dad strung blue lights on the front of the house shaped like the Star of David. I put up lights in the house because it's safer than burning candles. Lights are pretty!

Trees, wreaths, and other greenery. - This practice was absorbed along with the time of jolliness and giving that went along with Yule. At one time Yule, the Roman Winter solstice celebration, and the Christian Natalis Domini were celebrated concurrently. [Look up when the Julian calendar was adopted in Europe.] Here's where I believe the combination of religions and cultures starting forming the modern Christmas.

Santa Claus (with or without reindeer) - Santa came with some of our ancestors when they came over from Europe. Different cultures have different versions. In this country, the ideals of giving to the poor (St. Nicholas) and the bits gleaned from Germanic paganism, Scandinavia, and elsewhere all got mushed together to give us Santa Claus. Again here's the combining of Christian and non-Christian bits into a single something.

Snowmen - Completely secular. It's fun to watch kids play in the snow and remember when we were that young, innocent, and carefree. I think that is why snowmen have really burst onto the scene in the last few years. This is great in my opinion. I have a house full of snowmen, much to FH's dismay.

Big red bows.- I couldn't find anything meaningful or historical about big red bows. As far as I know they just look really nice with the greenery.

The Nativity and other bits connected with the story. i.e. three wise men. - Here's the one major non-secular bit that I could think of that is not seen during the rest of the year. Let us ponder this. This is the symbolism of the birth of Jesus the Christ, the only Son of God, in the Christian tradition. Ok. Should Christians put up the Nativity? Yes. Just as Jews should put up a menorah. Pagans who celebrate Yule put up trees. Muslims have the end of Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr. All of these practices are worthy of note.

At this point I feel I should mention Kwanzaa. I am unsure if specific members of my family celebrate this holiday alongside Christams. But here is a great example of a cultural tradition that is overlooked in the battles between the big religious traditions this time of year. Like many other cultural holiday tradtions, Kwanzaa is a beautiful thing. Some people say it is a made up holiday and we should ignore it. Umm.. some folks believe Christams is made up too. This just proves that everyone has opinions and other specific anatomy parts.

Take some time to look up various cultural and religious traditions from around the world. It's interesting and perhaps can open your mind a bit more. We're all people on this chunk of rock and we should at least respect each other. But I digress....

Back to the point.

Should a city government with cares for a religiously diverse population put up one without representing the others? No. Should a small city government that has only Christians living there put up a Nativity? If the townsfolk want it, more power to them, but I think the town should educate their children about the other practices and beliefs celebrated in this country.

If we look back at the realligning of Natalis Domini with the Winter Solstice, thus opening the door for Yule traditions to get absorbed into the Christain traditions, we are painted a picture of a religious melting pot. I'm not saying we should all start putting up the Nativity, menorahs or fasting in November. What I'm saying is that the adults in this country need to learn to jolly well get along. We need to get along year round, but especially at this time of year when so many traditions slam into each other with increasing velocity.

Be respectful. Be generous. Be courteous. Be kind.

I don't care who you are or what you believe in. You are my brother or sister in humanity. We can be nice to each other if we all remember to follow the four guidelines above.

I hope and pray everyone has a safe and joyous holiday, whatever it is.

**edit**

Post-script:

If you really hate the commercialism of the Christmas holiday, teach your kids differently. Eventually it will catch on.

Update on my sister

She's still in the hospital. Apparently her bladder was infected too but needed different antibiotics. All the antibiotics she was one killed the beneficial bacteria in her guts. Presumably they are doing something about that. Told my mom that if the doctors drop the ball on that she should go to our vet and get a tube of BeneBac, like we would for Tempie. She laughed.

So did my sister. That was awesome to hear.

Her kidney function is back to 100%. They are sending her home tomorrow if things keep improving.

Thoughts on future food prep

I just figured out why I've been not feeling well so often in the last several months. I've been using ground ginger and dried celery flakes in my various dishes and it turns out they are dried and preserved and/or dried with sulfur dioxide.

Anything that deals with sulfur and food makes me sick. No Mounds or Almond Joy for me. No mass produced breads with fancy dough conditioners. No mushrooms. No sea food. No Worcestershire. No wine. Hell, no grape juice. It doesn't matter if it is a sulfite, sulfide, or straight up sulfur. I get sick.

The reactions vary depending on what concentration I've ingested and what type of food stuff I'm dealing with. I can only eat sweet or green onions. I can only eat so much garlic before I'm miserable.

And now my spice cabinet is being attacked...

Well FH and I love fresh ginger, so that isn't a problem. I'm just annoyed we were out this morning and I couldn't have any in my oatmeal. And celery flakes can be worked around again by using fresh. But that leaves many questions about the other bottles that are in the kitchen.

So now we're going to systematically go through every seemingly innocuous bottle and jar of spices to make sure we can be warned. And probably take a trip to the spice aisle at the store to do some recon.

Hopefully whatever else contains the sulfur can be worked around. I'm tired of saying "I can't eat that, even though I love it." Or, "sorry I'm allergic." Or, "umm... there's nothing on this menu I can eat except a dry salad, hold the mushrooms and onions."

What kills me is that this started in my late teens and has gotten worse as time goes on. I had time to learn to appreciate fine wine, enjoy sushi, and develop an obsession with coconut in confections.

Recently we have found one winery in the States that makes wone I can drink. They ferment in a room filled with nitrogen gas. Yay for anerobic environments. I can get fresh coconuts and extract the meat out myself for sweets, and have in the past. Fortunetly we found a store that sells organic coconut nearby. Less work for chocolatey, coconutty goodnees.

So I guess we'll figure out more after our trip to the store. This whole mess is getting on my nerves though. I decided not too long ago that if I'm ever diagnosed with something terminal that I'm going to eat what I want in my last couple of days and damn the consequences. I'm going to go out with a smile on my face and favorite, good, and maybe new tastes on my pallet.

Heat!

We now have a working furnace blower motor and fan. The best part is the horrendous noise that predated yesterday's "gods-awful" noise is gone too. Now there is just the normal hum of a furnace. I bet some of FH's headaches will stop happening now.

Still no heat

Not only were the bushings in blower motor fried, the bears around the fan are also dead. I will say this about our maintenance crew, once they get to working on something, they do not stop until it is figured out.

Another things I think I should say about these guys. I always know I'm safe when they are around. They seem a bit rough around the edges but I know they're good guys.

I just wish they had more hours in a day or more help to get things done.

Logic Puzzle

...at least to some people.

When you inform tenants that the fan for the furnace/AC blower is loose and needs to be shimmed up when do you do it?

a) right away since it's March and still cold?

b) the week after they move in when you have to replace the elemnet for the furnace so the heat will work?

c) over the summer when the windows can be open for a breeze and the AC blower is turned off?

d) in the first deep freezes of the following winter when the bushings go out on the fan and it's so loud it is actually damaging to human hearing and in danger of frying the whole unit so the heat really should not be turned on?

If you answered "d" then you could be on the maintenance crew where we live.

We do not have heat right now... at least not heat that will be at acceptable decibel ranges. They did bring us two small electric heaters. Apprently they are in need of a part that they couldn't get today. *sigh*

In Memoriam

On this day sixty-seven years ago my grandmother lost a son, my father lost a brother, the Marines lost a good man.

PFC Everett Ray ***** Jr. died serving his country without ever knowing we were at war. He only knew when he was supposed to drive the admiral's wife to her Bridge game the next week and when the last letter home was sent. Did he have a sweetheart that the family never got to meet? What were his dreams and goals?

Please remember him and the hundreds of other men who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, HI on December 7, 1941.

Debates

1. I'm seriously debating putting down the cheap-o white excuse for a tree skirt that I bought to be underneath my heirloom tree skirt just to see what the buns will do. Neither of them have even left marking pellets under the tree in a week. It would certainly look nicer with something under the branches and I would definitely see if someone was going to be naughty and piddle upon things.

2. I'm pondering calling the vet on Monday and asking about changing the steroid dose for Castor. His IBD is still giving all of us fits and I know he doesn't feel well. I wonder if a shot every other day for a week or two might help instead of just Wednesdays and Sundays. The other side of the coin is worrying about his blood sugar and his weight. We've discussed the risk of the use of this drug before and that's what makes me hesitate. Treating this disease for him is like trying to skate barefoot along the blade of a sword.

3. Do I keep my on-line store for doll house stuff up and running or do I take it down? I have only ever gotten one order since I started and that was a while ago. At least it's not like I'm paying hundreds of dollars in rent or trying to sell on consignment. And FH has a place for his blog and anything else we want web space for.

4. How do I convince myself that I really want to get some miniature work done in the next few weeks? I haven't seemed to care about it for a few months. Part of the problem is I moved away from my best mini friends and the new mini group here isn't much fun at all. In fact if I hadn't gotten suckered into running the 2009 miniature show for them I am pretty sure I would leave the group entirely. I made a commitment though and intend to stick by it until after the show is over.

Poking fun

My FH and I have a dear friend who went to the same university as us and ended up being FH's bachelor roommate when he first moved to this area.

We're all gamers of some kind. I prefer tabletop RPG's, while FH likes a bit of everything.

Our friend LOVES video games. It doesn't matter if it's a PC game or a console game. The man loves games.

Last year for his birthday I cooked up a surprise for him. The video game, Portal, has two very recognizable features/characters.

Here are his gifts from last year:





























The "Weighted Companion Cube" and the "Cake."

The cube and the smallest cake in the pictures are made from polymer clay. The large cake on the right was actually edible. However being the evil wench that I am I took the game's catch phrase, "The cake is a lie," and ran with it.

The large cake on the left is actually a paper mache box that I bought at Michael's and then frosted to look just like the real thing.

He was mightily confused when the steak knife would not cut.


I pulled the edible cake out of hiding after he stabbed the fake one.

Needless to say I've got something planned for his birthday this year. I don't think it will top what I did for him last year, but I know he will like it. I will get pictures up after the fact.

Distractions

To distract myself from still being sick I'm playing with various projects and the camera. Even though the fever is gone I shouldn't leave the house in this cold... sometimes it doesn't pay to be a grown up.


Here are a couple of views of our tree this year.

The lights are blinking, so obviously I can't have them all on in a photograph. There isn't really a theme to the tree. I have a very eclectic combination of ornaments dating back to my childhood. In fact I'm supposed to be picking up a few more from my mother, but I'm stuck here. Ah well. Maybe she can mail them to me. Or I can get them for next year. I purposely left holes for the missing ones. Right now I just imagine they are in place.


Eventually I will be brave and put the skirting under the tree. Right now I'm concerned with the possibility of two bunnies marking their space on the tree skirt my sister made. [Not the one who's in the hospital...another one. I have 5.] As much as I love my bunnies I would be sorely tempted to turn one of them into a sporran for FH if they piddled all over that skirt. So to avoid the situation it remains hanging in the spare bathroom where I left it to dry after washing it.

Some people who know me well always ask about the angel that I have on top. Since they know I'm not Christian they get confused. It's very simple... Angels in the Christian tradition are good spirits who help people. I like good spirits. In fact I very much prefer them to the bad ones. Therefore I see nothing out of place with the representation of a good spirit on my tree. She's not alone up there either. There is at least one other angel on that tree and a few appearances of St. Nicholas.

Two of my favorite ornaments are scroll work pieces in olive wood from Jerusalem. One is a howling wolf and the other is a moose. I wish I could find more of them, especially a bear. There are others that still belong to my parents that I wish I could at least see again. Mom's got a glass ornament made from Mt. St. Helens ash. It's gorgeous. Dad has a stained glass owl that I always loved to hide deep in the tree branches near a light so his eyes would peek out at us. More than anything though I wish I could have the star. It's this old silver and blue metallic star, in the tradtional 5-pointed design, that my mother had before she married my father. I'm hoping that at some point she will let me have it.

Sick again

I'm so sick that I can't even bear to try and cross stitch. I've had a horrendous fever since last night. Fortunately I have Gatorade and and loving FH who came home long enough to make me some food since I am unable to make it off the couch.

Needless to say I will not be going to the miniature group luncheon tomorrow.

Sweet Kitties of the World

I have been awarded the Lemonade Award by Rascal.


It's a wonderful pick-me-up after everything that's been happening with my sister.

I would like to pass it onto Fuzzy Husband and The Sheep Geek.

Thank you so much, Rascal! :-)

Updates to previous bits

Apparently my sister and I do not have the same blood type, so if she needs a new kidney I'm a helpless end. Also we found out why her kidneys failed... Advil. Instead of seeing a doctor about migraines she self medicated with Advil.

The tree is up, lit, and covered in ornaments. I am flat out refusing to put the tree skirt that another sister made or the presents under it until the 24th. I know that my bunnies will piddle on and chew everything otherwise.

Weather may trap me here over the weekend. I was supposed to go back to Mom's and see the sick sister and visit my original mini-friends. It's snowing here again and will snow more this weekend.

Random bits

Well it appears that my sister is suffering from kidney failure. No clue yet as to whether it's the version that can heal with help or not.

I apparently was out in the cold wind too long yesterday and have developed a fever and a general feeling of "ick." Taking it easy in the hopes that I just need to recover from drying out in the wind and such.

Working on various Yule gifts and one birthday gift.

Post trip laundry is being run. Almost have the kitchen back under control.

Began decorating the house yesterday. We put the tree up Sunday to see what the menagerie would do. The cats apparently remembered that they aren't supposed to climb it. The rabbits had never seen one before but like the low-lying branches.

I grabbed the roving and some stashed yarn from my MIL's house. Once the gifts are out of the way and I get caught back up with some miniature work I plan on making myself a coat out of chunky weight baby alpaca yarn. It's heavenly to the touch.

Second baby's gift

Here is the second baby's gift, finished but for his name, date of birth, and stamping of his footprints in place.

He did not show up early for Thanksgiving. We'll see how long his momma can hold his little behind in.

Once he's here, the name and date will get stitched in place and I'll block the piece. Then I can get his feet stamped either right after he comes home or if I catch it right I might be able to get them to stamp it at the hospital.

Now to break out the sewing machine for bassinet sheets for him and get going on other Yule type gifts for people.