the best part is always the books
Christmas is always an odd time for me. I went to Catholic school as a kid, and of course you do all this stuff for Christmas, but it's impressed on you the importance of Easter (well, the Easter season, not Easter the one day) as the most important religious holiday. As a result, the frenzy around Christmas annoys me, because it's clear to me how much of it is not rooted in faith -- but is treated just as if it is. As if rampant commercialism is just as important (or more important) than the religious meaning. I kind of feel like, if you're going to be religious, you ought to know your holy days, and what they mean, and what is just cultural trappings.
I was raised in a nearly-atheist household (my father is atheist, my mother lapsed-Catholic/agnostic), and I'm an agnosto-atheist married to an atheist raised in an atheist (of the secular humanist stripe) household. So Christmas is purely cultural for the both of us; there's absolutely no religious element to Christmas for us. It's just...this thing that no one in their right mind would give up, if they had it.
And so I always feel a trifle odd; I have, to some extent, a right to this holiday -- I grew up with it, it's this huge part of my culture -- but for a lot of people, in addition to its cultural expression, it has a religious meaning.
None of which keeps me from loving it. I spent Christmas Eve baking at my mother-in-law's (four loaves French bread, two loaves rosemary olive bread, two loaves sourdough), and Christmas Day was be presents and lobster bisque and a rib roast and listening to my sister-in-law's hilarious Island gossip and figuring out Skype so I could see everyone at my mother's house and bid them the day.
Of course, nothing is complete without adventure -- in this case, the oven door breaking. At least it is a double oven, so the bottom oven was fine and cooked us up a roast, no problem, but still. I was taking out the last loaf of bread and it made this horrid noise...and it's new, about a week old! So that was fun.
And then today we went out and bought more books.
Speaking, of I did finish Things Fall Apart. I am now reading Little, Big (John Crowley) and Slaves in the Family (Edward Ball). Acacia was next in the to-read queue, but I bought both of the books I'm reading now shortly before vacation, and they're the books I brought with me when I finished Things Fall Apart the day before we left.
I actually can't remember if I finished The Basque History of the World. I keep reading Kurlansky and spacing out and...I think I just don't like Kurlansky, which is a shame because he writes on interesting topics, but...well, but.
I was raised in a nearly-atheist household (my father is atheist, my mother lapsed-Catholic/agnostic), and I'm an agnosto-atheist married to an atheist raised in an atheist (of the secular humanist stripe) household. So Christmas is purely cultural for the both of us; there's absolutely no religious element to Christmas for us. It's just...this thing that no one in their right mind would give up, if they had it.
And so I always feel a trifle odd; I have, to some extent, a right to this holiday -- I grew up with it, it's this huge part of my culture -- but for a lot of people, in addition to its cultural expression, it has a religious meaning.
None of which keeps me from loving it. I spent Christmas Eve baking at my mother-in-law's (four loaves French bread, two loaves rosemary olive bread, two loaves sourdough), and Christmas Day was be presents and lobster bisque and a rib roast and listening to my sister-in-law's hilarious Island gossip and figuring out Skype so I could see everyone at my mother's house and bid them the day.
Of course, nothing is complete without adventure -- in this case, the oven door breaking. At least it is a double oven, so the bottom oven was fine and cooked us up a roast, no problem, but still. I was taking out the last loaf of bread and it made this horrid noise...and it's new, about a week old! So that was fun.
And then today we went out and bought more books.
Speaking, of I did finish Things Fall Apart. I am now reading Little, Big (John Crowley) and Slaves in the Family (Edward Ball). Acacia was next in the to-read queue, but I bought both of the books I'm reading now shortly before vacation, and they're the books I brought with me when I finished Things Fall Apart the day before we left.
I actually can't remember if I finished The Basque History of the World. I keep reading Kurlansky and spacing out and...I think I just don't like Kurlansky, which is a shame because he writes on interesting topics, but...well, but.