Merry Christmas to the MDB Children!

[Some Schmo]

All I did was put up a link to the NORAD Santa Tracker for the children on Christmas Eve and you come in here and crapped up my nice thing.

Sorry, Jersey Girl. I just had to get that out of my system.

Regardless, I hope you had great holidays.

[Jersey Girl]

All I did was put up a link to the NORAD Santa Tracker for the children on Christmas Eve and you come in here and crapped up my nice thing.

Sorry, Jersey Girl. I just had to get that out of my system.

Could you not just try something new at Christmas time? I tried to think up some ideas.

1. Go on an annual trip.

2. Staycation with a daily plan of outings or experiences.

3. Create your own Winter Solstice celebration or tradition.

4. Engage the family in learning about historical/cultural traditions of various faiths and practices each year, or once a week leading up to Christmas, like your own form of Advent without ripping off Christianity. [/sarcasm] Then you won't have to deal with all the Jesus nonsense that is actually the heartbeat and soul of Christmas because that turns you off so you let it develop into a practice of materialistic idolatry and you don't like that either because it's stupid and soulless, and you hate it. [/sarcasm]

Not to worry, I am here to help relieve you of your stupid and soulless idolatry! Here you go, Schmo!

Schmo Family Advent

Week one: St. Nicholas traditions around the world. Review the philosophical meaning of the letter "Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus"

Week two: Hanukkah traditions and what they represent

Week three: Flying Spaghetti Monster historical traditions

Week four: Festivus and the Airing of Grievances

Bonus activity: Study changes in the Night Sky for the month. Observe and document them. Enjoy your time together.

Heck I could break out the St. Nicholas into 4 weeks as it's own topic.

Regardless, I hope you had great holidays.

Yeah it was really a good time this year with nice and relaxed family visits in two parts. When everyone is here all together there's a running family joke about who is going to ruin Christmas this year. As in, "Stop that before you ruin Christmas" or "You don't want to ruin Christmas do you?" Trust me, there's actual historical data on how that developed. When we're split into parts like we have been the past few years, they still do it. Even the new guy picked up on it and joins in. My gosh we are all crazy. It's actually a requirement for membership in the tribe.

[Some Schmo]

Sorry, Jersey Girl. I just had to get that out of my system.

Could you not just try something new at Christmas time?

I still enjoyed the time off with family, and it seems to me that's the value of the season for me now that my daughter is an adult.

I guess the narrative is basically me acknowledging what it is and contextualizing the holiday properly. It's all fine if I approach the whole thing without feeling any obligation, and fortunately, me wife feels the same way.

Regardless, I hope you had great holidays.

Yeah it was really a good time this year with nice and relaxed family visits in two parts. When everyone is here all together there's a running family joke about who is going to ruin Christmas this year. As in, "Stop that before you ruin Christmas" or "You don't want to ruin Christmas do you?" Trust me, there's actual historical data on how that developed. When we're split into parts like we have been the past few years, they still do it. Even the new guy picked up on it and joins in. My gosh we are all crazy. It's actually a requirement for membership in the tribe.

LOL... this all sounds very familiar.