My Real Life

Right now…

Right now is when I get hit by the Christmas spirit.

It seems to elude me as we move toward Christmas.

When you are a child, you spend your time waiting for Christmas, and that anticipation makes it seem so magical.

When you are an adult, you spend your time preparing for Christmas, and that work can be exhausting.

Yet, in the quiet of the night when all the presents are wrapped and the stockings are filled…the house is quiet.

In that quiet, I find myself anticipating, once again.  

Anticipating the pitter-patter of excited little feet rushing down the stairs in the morning, and the squeals of excitement before they run back up the stairs to wake us.

And just like that…the magic is restored.

Whether you are celebrating Christmas today, or not, may today be full of love, joy, and magic.

There’s just something about Baby Monkey.

I’ve never met anyone as completely comfortable with himself as he.

I’ve also never met anyone who can entertain themselves as fully and for as long as he can.

One day, you walk into the kitchen and he’s doing this:

(Why he’s wearing his jacket, I don’t know…he and Monkey in the Middle never take their jackets off when they come home from places.)

Scissors, tape, pens, paper…creating something that will wind up being taped to a wall somewhere in our home.

The next day, you walk into the living room and he’s doing this:

Confiscating items from our the house to create a reflective light tunnel.

Why?

Because he can.

He doesn’t necessarily enjoy being the center of attention, but when he knows it’s inevitable, he makes the best of it.

Like wearing his brothers suit to his choral concert, even though it was a bit too big, because he wanted to look “extra fancy.”

Yep…there’s just something about this guy, and maybe it’s the fact that he keeps the real him hidden in public and only shares himself with us.  Like we’re all in on this little secret of his utter and complete awesomeness.

I don’t know, but I can tell you that if there are any guarantees of kids on the nice list, this guy is at the top.

Every night, we have a nice, family dinner.

After dinner, however, the monkeys are off in a million different directions.

Real Man and I usually sit and chat about our day, at this point, as during dinner, there are four different conversations going on at any time, as the monkeys chatter away.

Normally, Tiny goes with the big kids, as always, eager to be a part of whatever it is they might be doing.

Friday night, however, Tiny decided to hang with us, and climbed into the chair next to Real Man, cup in hand, and just began to chat with his Dad.

I realize this is a touchy topic.

I realize I’m trying to get more readers, not alienate the ones I already have.

However, this comes up every single holiday season (yes, I said holiday season) and I feel like I want to address it.

I really don’t understand why people are becoming so resistant to saying “Happy Holidays” to strangers, instead of “Merry Christmas.”

No sooner do the Thanksgiving dishes get washed and put away than people begin putting on their “Christmas Armor,” preparing for the battle that, they alone, seem to want to fight.

Message boards across the net light up with topics like “Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?” and tempers begin to rise.

Then the annual “Prepare yourselves, Christians…they (oh, the evil “they”) are trying, once again, to rip the Christ out of Christmas!”

People in stores yell “Merry Christmas” to each other in tones that, on the surface, sound happy and bright, but with an undertone of anger and challenge and you can almost hear the implied “Damn it” following their “well” wishes.

Why the fuss?

What does it cost you to say “Happy Holidays” to someone you don’t know?

Nothing.

Not one thing.

I am increasingly concerned by the egocentric view more and more people seem to have of the world.

It’s not as though anyone is asking Americans not to say “Happy Thanksgiving” to each other.

No one is taking issue with “Happy Memorial Day!”

Why?

Because when you live in the United States, you expect to be celebrating American holidays.

Just like if you lived in France, you’d expect to celebrate Bastille Day.

These are holidays that you can reasonably expect everyone in the country is celebrating.

Christmas is not.

It’s a religious holiday and in a nation that was founded by people seeking religious freedom, it makes sense to be inclusive with our religious holiday greetings, rather than exclusive.

One of my favorite quotes comes from the Dalai Lama.

He said, “My religion is very simple.  My religion is kindness.”

Shouldn’t that be all of our religion?

To those who feel that being inclusive somehow takes away from their own celebration of Christmas, I can’t help but wonder what is behind that fear.

I keep hearing about “the attack on Christianity in America.”

I keep reading how public schools have shunned the Pledge of Allegiance and those that still say it have removed “Under God” from the words.

Really?

Where?

Because I teach in a public school and every single morning we stand and say the Pledge…the words “Under God” still intact, and in my broad network of educator friends that stretches across the country, they all do it in their schools, too.

I had a friend write on Facebook the other night that she was thrilled to finally get to go to an actual “Christmas” concert and followed up with “I LOVE Catholic school.”

Yes…Catholic school would be the absolutely appropriate place for a Christmas concert.

But why would you ever expect a public school, which educates students of all faiths, to not hold a concert that was inclusive of all of their holiday celebrations?

My Catholic children have participated in “Holiday” concerts their entire school career.

They know the principles of Kwanzaa (which is not a religious holiday, but a December celebration that many of our local families celebrate), understand the story of the festival of lights, can speak some Hebrew, play the Dreidel game like champs, and still manage to maintain their Christianity.

I’ve seen the poster that says “Dear God, Why do you allow terrible thing to happen to schools?  God’s Response: Because you’ve taken me out of the schools” more times than I care to think about in the past week and it makes me sick.

The separation of church and state isn’t what is wrong with this country.

What’s wrong with this country is a culture where people believe that they are superior to anyone who is different, and those who are different do not deserve to have their feelings, experiences, or beliefs validated.

Do I think the whole idea of a “Holiday Tree” in the White House is a silly idea?

Sure.

You wouldn’t have a “Holiday Menorah” as it is a symbol that is specific to the story and celebration of Hannukah.

The Christmas tree isn’t such a symbol (it’s a pagan symbol that, like so many other religious symbols, was co-opted by the Church, but that’s another story) however, it is clearly a Christmas symbol.

I’d be on board with the Obamas having a tree in their private apartments and some other type of inclusive holiday symbol on display to represent the nation (because, no matter how many times people say we are a Christian nation, we are a nation of many faiths) but I don’t know what that symbol might be.

And now I’ve digressed.

My point is, saying “Happy Holidays” doesn’t make you any less Christian.

In fact, I think it makes you more so.

Love thy neighbor, anyone?

So, this is a very long way of explaining why I say “Happy Holidays” and why our holiday cards said “Peace, Love and Joy.”

If I know you celebrate Christmas, you’ll get a “Merry Christmas!” from me.

If I know you celebrate Hannukah, you can be sure I’ll greet you with a “Happy Hannukah!”

If you celebrate any other holiday, I will greet you with a greeting appropriate to your celebration.

However, if I don’t know what your religion, beliefs, or background, I’ll smile and say “Happy Holidays!”

Because I think everyone’s traditions are important and it doesn’t cost me a thing to acknowledge that everyone I meet doesn’t necessarily celebrate the way that I do.

It’s that time of year when Baby Monkey’s thoughts turn to snowflakes.

Despite the fact that we aren’t experiencing any outside, Baby hears “winter” and he’s in a snowflake state of mind.

However, when he came to me to ask how to fold the paper, I had to go back into my archives to find the link to the tutorial we used last year to create the perfect snowflake.

Or, in our case, 3,879,421 perfect snowflakes.

So, I figured that if you have little ones, you, too, might be needing a snowflake tutorial.

So, feel free to revisit this post from last year, and have the vacuum ready for all the little pieces!

Don’t forget to enter our last contest of the year!  Contest ends tomorrow night and we only have 3 participants so far!!!   Rules and how to enter here!

Real Man and I were watching the 121212 Concert for Hurricane Sandy relief on Wednesday night.

It was a phenomenal show.

At one point, Eric Clapton took the stage, sat on a stool and started to play and sing.

All I could think was how very easy he made it look.

He sat on the stool like it was made for him, lifted that guitar and just started strumming…almost without even thinking, and played some of my favorite tunes.

So easy.

I turned to Real Man and said, “What if he never got discovered?  What if he wound up being a guy who works in an office and plays the guitar and sings to his family and friends, but never for the public?  Think of what the rock world would have missed out on.”

Real Man responded with, “Forget discovered…what if he never picked up a guitar?”

And I started to just think about how many people there are, like that, in the world.

People who have some incredible, hidden talent that they never realize because they are never exposed to the medium wherein their talent lies.

Picassos who never pick up a paintbrush.

Shakespeares who never write a word.

Athletes who never take the field.

Parents who never bear a child.

Teachers who never set foot in a school.

There must be millions, across the world, and I just find it such a shame.

I think this may be why I’m such an evangelist of getting equal education opportunities for children across the world.

Classrooms open so many doors to people, and expose everyone to things they might never come across in their daily lives.

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