Once upon a hoopty...

I feel like I offend everybody at Christmastime. On one hand, I'm a Christian and so i feel like people who are not immediately are offended by my being a Christian at Christmas, as if I came up with a holiday and deliberately chose not to include them in on it. It seems a more prominent time of year for me to feel like people think that all Christians are the same. As if all anything are the same. On the other hand, I feel that in Christian circles, I don't give ENOUGH importance to Christ's birth in late december. I generally try to celebrate his resurrection year round and don't feel the need to place great importance every year on the birth of Jesus just because it's Christmastime.

For me, the "reason for the season" is family. The reason that we have a chance to get together at this time of year is because of the traditional celebration of Christmas, which is a Catholic response to paegan religions for winter solstice, but I don't really care why this particular time of year is the time of year that we get together. Every year I have been alive, we have gotten together with family this time of year and I have always enjoyed that. It has become more important as I live farther and farther from home. I only saw my parents 7 times in 2007, so seeing them at Christmas was really fantastic.

The Christmas season is the time of year when i can remember that while "you can never go home again," there are a lot of things that stay the same at home and with the people I love.

So, while I wish year-round that you would know who Jesus is, when I wish you a Merry Christmas, please know that I wish you happiness with your family. Merry Christmas.

-Æ