I try not to put too much pressure on Christmas Day itself; there seems to be a little too much weight on it for one day to reasonably and realistically bear. I like the odd moments at the periphery of things: decorating the tree, putting up the lights, the lazy post-Christmas days of games and reading and cookies (parenthetical semi-original cookie joke: I was worried I would nutmeg a good husband, but my wife assure me she's never cinnamon so handsome before). With all that said, this was a good Christmas. Relatively low key, no drama, no present-overload, everyone loved what they got. My wife got the aforementioned memory cookies and an mp3 player, I got tons of books, and the girls got a Wii.
Yes, a Wii.
Oh, my.
They've been pretty TV-deprived up to now, maybe 2 hours a month. Not because we're anti-TV zealots so much as, prior to being adopted by us, they were dumped in front of the TV and ignored all day. When school starts we'll enforce the 1 hour a day, after homework is done rule. Bur right now, in the netherworld between Christmas and New Year's, it's a video game orgy.
I can literally play video games all day long.
Literally.
Anyway.
We went to church today. Interesting. I thought parenthood would make me more religious; it has instead made me deeply suspicious of religion. I don't want them to get their fingers inside my children's heads. But the girls are curious, and they need to make up their own minds, and the questions church raises are good questions that I enjoy discussing.
Besides, this was a Unitarian church, barely even a church at all. Much blander than the Southern Baptist congregations I grew up in. An emphasis on community, which was nice. But, oddly, I missed the drama and sturm und drang of those crazy Baptists I grew up with.
We shall see where this all leads in the coming year.
I start The Novel on Friday.
3 comments:
I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with my ex-girlfriend on Saturday. There's a little Southern Baptist goings on in it, and she, staunch Catholic, was horrified at the vigor with which the preacher went about smacking foreheads, healing the lame, etc. I've always preferred the baptists. Catholics seem dead to me.
Excited for you, for the novel. I finish mine probably around the same time.
I grew up in the United Church here. An evangelical friend refers to it as "As close as you can get to none of the above and still have a place to go on Sunday". My wife is Catholic.
While I am also deeply suspicious of organized religion, both boys go to the catholic board. I figure it's my duty ot let them make up their own minds rather than force my beliefs on them. Besides, it's still Christmas and not some weird Winter Festival thing.
We started looking for a Wii far too late and couldn't get one. Some time over the winter, we'll track one down.
Actually, E, I don't think Catholics are dead - they just cloak religion in mystery and deep ritual. While I don't understand Catholicism, I find that kind of appealing.
Gordo, Wiis are plentiful here in the States, and cheap! Which would be good news, except that the sinking economy is what made them plentiful and cheap.
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