Oh, the weather outside is frightful

We got a white christmas after all! Thunder, lightening, rain, sleet, snow, hail, too. Ahhhhh, the Pacific Northwest rain forest where if you wait 10 minutes the weather can change 10 degrees and everything is dramatically altered, attitudes included!

Christmas season was hard to get into this year. As a Baha'i one celebrates with one's cultural heritage, freely, as one wishes to. I mean, if my cultural heritage were to severe body parts (i.e. little boy's who-who's because he'll look funny in the shower room if you don't) then I won't participate. However, if it is to celebrate family togetherness, acknowledging those family and friends that you may have overlooked during the year with special tokens of love and acts of kindness, that is something we take part in.

I don't go for the over commercialization of a holiday, any holiday. We don't buy into randomly mailing cards, if you send one to us we return the favor, sans newsletter. We spend few dollars on gifts, often they are homestitched, baked, canned, smoked or brewed. The kids know that Santa is a feeling/concept and not a physical person, and that special people get to "play" the role of Santa each year. It is better to give and watch the joy your gift bestowed on the recipient. In the same regard, be a gracious receiver, remember how much fun it is to watch someone truly enjoy the gift you carefully chose for them.

This year almost all of our decor was packed away, packed so well I haven't the foggiest which container I packed it in. No lights outdoors, nor old time honored ornaments for the tree. Up until the week before our house looked as if perhaps the Grinch had taken up residence. My grandson reminded us that we still had a heritage to share. He went to Fred Meyers and saw "Freddy's Christmas" and on TV and the movies we rented were various other, "Christmases," labeling each one with their own identities.

Only once did the concept of presents come into play, when we were watching the movie Santa Claus is coming to town (which I find very annoying, what's with that penguin?). When the miester burger took all of the children's toys away from the children my grandson actually cried! And when the Claus brought them their presents he was so happy.


The only way to teach our children our heritage is by example. So, our German tree came out, ornaments went up. Lights strewn about. My grandson sighed, "Christmas is here! This is my own Christmas!" We are a part of our cultural heritage. We did not leave it behind, but we do not accept it all. We celebrate the time of year that brings us together and recognizes the value each of us brings to the table. We like the idea of Santa but we do not say he alone is responsible to bring riches to children the world over. We are responsible for one another and the Santa we have today may or may not be the same Santa as next year. Santa is the name we choose to call him, it is his spirit we emulate, not his name, not his person.


While many we love celebrate this time of year as the birth of Jesus Christ, we do not. While we love Him wholeheartedly, we do not believe He was born in December. Nor do we believe that He would want His birth celebrated alone, when the Divinely eminating spirit that has manifested Itself repeatedly in many Divine Educators is recognized by so few.

We celebrate this time of year to acknowledge our culture, to be with family and friends, to eat great food, enjoy witty conversations, learn new stories about spouses from their siblings, take pictures of people dribbling food our of their mouths and making figure gestures at the photographer.


Also, we celebrate because we love to celebrate! In reality, it's for the hot cocoa, krumkaka, pupmpkin pie and games. Let it snow, rain, sleet or hail, we will sing in the new year, bringing with it the good we acquired while tossing out the bad we learned we didn't need.

To our friends, old and newly acquired, I wish you a holiday season filled with delight and may all of your challenges in the new year be one's you accept with radiant acquiescence, determined to learnwhat needs to be learned and successfully pass all tests with flying colors!