Happy Yuletide or Holidays, which ever you prefer. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are still fighting over who's holiday it is, what the reason for the season is, or who started the holiday. Sorry my Christian friends, but Yule or the Winter Solstice did, in fact, begin with the pagans, the Egyptians to be exact and it was their celebration of the rebirth of Horus. It spread to the Babylonians Romans, Greeks and on and on it went. When the Christian's came about, they needed something to compete with pagan holidays and festivities so they chose December 25th. They actually did that with a lot of pagan holidays in their effort to gain converts.
Over the years Christians and pagans have developed customs and symbols and mishmashed them together so much so that it's hard to tell who came up with what. For me it doesn't matter what belongs to what or who, for all, the season, no matter which faith you ascribe to, is about renewal, family, giving, and hope. But, like the Joker in Batman, the arguments between Christians and other religions, won't die. And for some people, they just can't let it go, to agree to disagree, which is pretty damn sad.
I suppose I am fussing about it because I keep seeing my Christian friends plastering my wall with various 'in your face' messages about the holiday season. I appreciate their enthusiasm and their right to free speech, but not their snobbish attitude about it. It's kind of depressing and makes me believe that they've forgotten what the actual 'reason for the season' is.
That being said, I am celebrating both pagan and christian holidays in my house. I will most likely celebrate Yule (Winter Solstice) with Skoora in the privacy of our room or we might go out. We will celebrate Christmas with her parents, who are Catholic. For all the complaining I do and all the aggravation I feel over Skoora's parents, they have never ever given me any lip about my religious beliefs. I've never had to hide my books in a box under the bed, hide the few items of jewelry I own, or well anything. Of course that probably has something to do with the fact that I respect their religious beliefs and practices, and don't shove mine in their face and get bitchy with them like their son and his wife did. (Sometime I would really like to talk about those two, but that'll be several blog posts long.)
All of that aside, we have almost all the Christmas/Yule presents taken care of. I think we just have Skoora's mom's stocking left. Since we're really broke, and that seems to be a common theme spreading throughout my family, I told Skoora not to worry about getting things for my family. They don't know it but I am in the process or will be making them things. All of it just takes time but I'm working where and when I am able.
I have managed to make two craft pieces only so far and don't expect to get any more done this year, unless they happen to be someones present. I will feature them on my craft blog when I am able to get around to that. And I haven't made any seasonal food as of yet. I am planning on it, I would very much like to make wassail again. The last time I made it it was for a Yule party with some pagans back in Wichita but the person who was running it had something come up. So I was left with this giant pot of wassail that my Dad had helped me to make! It was really good and there was just so much of it that I don't think we were able to finish it all. I think it was even in the fridge for a month. If I make it this time, it won't be that much to be sure.
Oh, I am cooking Christmas dinner this year, so I have been perusing Pinterest and recipe sites to see what looks good. I don't want to do the same old things this year, but something different.
Other than that, I have to write in a little in the holiday letter Skoora started. I was uber depressed earlier today because I didn't think I really had anything to write and if I did manage something I didn't think that anyone would really give a shit. (This is where my depression and anxiety have won over everything and smacked me around for a few days.) I whined as much on facebook and a couple of my friends kindly told me that wasn't true and a couple even gave me some ideas. An teacher from high school who has since turned good friend, got frustrated when I told a friend that it wasn't so much that I didn't have anything to write as it was that there's nothing overly positive about my current situation, and that my Grandmother ground into me that it wasn't good to tell people how things really were because they really didn't care and wouldn't want to hear about it. So in essence Grandma told me to hide things and lie. My teacher friend didn't like that and told me to just write what I felt and if I didn't like it in the end, I could scrap it and say 'I'm done with that'. It sounds good to me.
One of my friends suggested that I write a Christmas story with all of my favorite characters. LOL, that wouldn't be as short a story as she thinks it might be and then the question is: anime characters, movies characters, TV show characters, or my personal characters from the books I've been writing or previous short stories or fanfics? Or should I make up entirely new characters? Hmmm. I'm going to have to tell this friend of mine that she's a bitch (in a loving way) because I have been seriously considering this story idea and kind of don't have time to do write it. Foresee several nights no sleep in my immediate future.
