It’s Carnival Xmas Time
In December 2005, we put up Xmas lights outside, lots of them, all along the rails and the door. All the streetlights were out then so it was important in our privileged, shamefully-lucky way. It was nice, though, to see a light at night that wasn’t the slow, blue blip of a National Guard Humvee. That was only every few hours.
This year…maybe I’m just tired. Maybe The Girl is over the giggly, kid-ish gimme lust and somewhat ambivalent herself, or just playing it very cool as she passes into the teens. Many things displease me now, too many to attend to, and I have more needs than I’d like and have to ask for more allowances and concessions than I am comfortable with so it’s time for a holiday break. Of sorts. As much as it can be. I have Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” to get me in the spirit. All I need is “The 12 Drinks of Christmas,” “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” and “The 12 Yats of Christmas” and I’m set. Gimme me something to wrap and, depending on the surrounding relations, a drink.
So Black to a Black to the G Bitch archives:
Merry Happy Keep X in Your Xmas
I am ambivalent and conflicted about Christmas. I’m not about the Christ story; I have only recently learned the art and nuance of gifting and being gifted; I’m a loner; I like the compulsion to see, talk to and hang out with family, something that can be too easy to slip past; I’m grateful to be in NO and it to still be here; I like little colored lights and red and green chili peppers and stars and tinsel and the smell of a tree and wrapping presents and actually cooking instead of tossing, heating, unwrapping, microwaving. But then there I am out in the mishpocheh–vegan, atheist and from New Orleans. Ouch.
So Black to the G Bitch Archives:
Holiday Greetings
It’s time to make another magical, atheist, vegan Christmas/holiday season for The Girl. I will take a break from now until about the 30th. Spare an animal–have a vegetarian/vegan holiday meal. Donate to others and smile for no reason.
I have always been conflicted about Xmas. Growing up without Xmas (with parents who were non-conforming immigrants who celebrated no holidays of this land or their old–A tree inside the house???) and now having one of those “gimme-lust” kids (very early stages; I need to nip it in the bud) and Xmas-”traditions”(hah!)-shoved-down-your-throat in-laws (who also inflict upon me their annual, week-long holiday visit), I am more than bloody ready to wash my hands of it. Mistletoe arrows, anyone? Next year WILL be different.
As I was crafting next year’s holiday plans, I looked at the only thing I’d written on a scrap of paper: Winter Solstice. Question mark after it, lots of doodling around it. Dissatisfied, I asked my nearly 5-year-old to help me come up with additional ideas. Her paper: “Things to celebrate next year: snow, the Milky Way, cats, Buddha, being silly, really good colored pencils, dancing, the atom.”
~MKS
(P.S. The in-laws are getting a completely vegan Xmas dinner this year.)
I like vegan-ing the in-laws! Maybe they’ll think about that week-long visit next year.
Once you no longer believe in the Jesus story, and don’t buy fully into the shop-until-the-GDP-pops “spirit” of the season, you kind of want to go to the movies on Xmas day.
I think the 5-year-old is totally onto something. Really good colored pencils are something to celebrate. That list looks like a brand-new family tradition.
Peace to you and yours.
Spoiled by Berol Prismacolor — she found them in my dusty artbox from college (1983) and they are still as amazing — she will no longer consider Crayola. I told her at $1.99/pencil, we’d start out with a few new ones at a time (she wants the whole “Rembrandt Set” of 289), so now she’s trying to convince her teacher at school why they’re so much better than what they’ve got.
Enjoy your holiday.
Prismacolors are indeed the Cadillacs of colored pencils. Your girl’s got a real eye for the right tools for the job.
Don’t forget that Chinese food with your movie!
Happy freakin’ hollerdays anyhow.