So, as I was at Fred Meyer, loading groceries in to the back of my mom's Subaru because she decided to send me grocery shopping at the major store in Maple Valley on the last shopping day before Christmas Eve (which was precisely as much fun you'd think it'd be for someone who hates crowded, loud places), I got some snow on my jacket.
I apologize for the vertical-ness, I took it to text to my mother about how much I was loving my life at the time.
It was the first time I've seen real snow this season, and checking the weather report, snow showers are expected in the Maple Valley area for Christmas Eve, marking a good chance for one of the things that can make my mother squeal like a giidy schoolgirl: a white Christmas.
My mother has a certain fascination with snow being on the ground on December 25, bordering on an almost romantic infatuation. She got excited when she moved out to the Pacific Northwest for that reason. After all, chances of a white Christmas in Oklahoma are pretty low.
The forecasted high in Stillwater on Christmas Day? 65 degrees.
Christmas has always been an odd holiday. A mishmash of Christian belief and pagan Germanic festivals, it's worked it's way in to the American, and indeed Western culture, as a cultural celebration of peace, good will, and capitalism bordering on the pornographic. Yet, I still meet people every year who act surprised when I offer "Merry Christmas" or actually participate in the holiday despite not believing in the religious mythos that many subscribe to it.
I'd call it a fairy tale, but I have many relatives and close family members who would get really mad if I called it that, and that is just a fight not worth trying to win.
Like that speech from Independence Day (with fewer aliens shooting green snot at me), Christmas is no longer a Christian holiday. Is it really so weird in this country to celebrate a holiday that brings the entire nation to a screeching halt without believing that, 2,000 years ago, some newlywed gave birth in a horse stall before getting her freak on? Apparently it is for some people.
So, keep your virgin birth, your Star of Bethlehem, your frankincense and your myrrh.
Leave the gold.
Keep your religious connotations and your baby Jesus. I'll celebrate Christmas the way I like to: as a celebration where I do my damnest to have peace and goodwill to all, even if I really hate them.
Besides, Christmas lights in a cold, quiet night makes me feel kinda fuzzy.
Merry Christmas.