cross-cultural christmas

if i seem to have been a bit lackadaisical in my blogging of late, please understand that it's only part of my new year's resolution to approach life with less enthusiasm. i resume posting, however, under threat by kelley of blog commandeering. we tipped our hat to our danish ancestry with a pre-christmas leaving out of shoes on the front porch for santa to fill with treats. caught up in the spirit of multiculturalism, i decided to throw a little chanukah in the mix. since the kids love candles so much, i figured an advent menorah would be the perfect way to count down to christmas. (if this christian perversion of an ancient tradition were not enough to make our jewish friends sick to their stomachs, the kids added their own spin on it- every night they insisted on singing "happy birthday, dear menorah" before blowing out the candles.) now i never thought of my neighborhood as anti-semitic, but come visit us next december and try finding a menorah anywhere in town. wal-mart, target, home depot; i looked anywhere christmas decorations were sold, but found not so much as a single gelt to be found. at last i resorted to some scrap wood and varnish for a makeshift candelabra. as crude as was my workmanship, the christmas menorah was a huge hit, and is currently in the basement with the rest of the christmas decorations.

breakfast on christmas morning was a household favorite- eggs and sausage. this was served, of course, after the more traditional christmas breakfast of  seven pounds of chocolate bells, reindeer shaped snickers bars and pez. our cultural journey concluded with the very american christmas tradition of defiling innocent children with such over-consumerism as to remove all meaning from a once spiritual celebration of faith and agape love. favorite gifts include a pair of jewel encrusted dress up shoes which i have to wrestle off penelope every night before bed, and an atlas of the universe, which has turned conversations in our home from fighter jets and transport aircraft to galaxy clusters and protoplanetary nebulae. the kids pose below with two big ticket items: the renowned sr-71 blackbird, and lovably idiosyncratic sock collector "minty" of whom penelope waxes poetic in a previous post.

raiding the stockings at first light on christmas morning. the last pieces of candy were still in their mouths as they began petitioning to open the wrapped presents...