Merry Christmas!

That's right, the Jewish guy is wishing you a Merry Christmas. The folks who get offended need to lighten up and get a life. Now, if you KNOW I celebrate Chanukah and wish me a Merry Christmas, that is another story, but all-in-all, it's the thought that counts.

So, what does a Jew do at Christmas? This one listens to Christmas songs nonstop from Thanksgiving on, to the puzzlement of many. It helps me avoid suffering any effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Don't know if I really have it or not, but listening to Christmas songs cheers me up and there are a lot that are a lot of fun (until I hear Wham's Last Christmas, which is just wrong on far too many levels to discuss here).

(Blog tangent- My Top 5 Christmas songs right now are Straight, No Chaser's 12 Days, Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas, The Kinks' Father Christmas, The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping and The Barenaked Ladies/Sara McLaughlin G-d Rest ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings, the best Christmas harmonies EVER recorded.
The worst 5- See above for #1. #2- Stevie Nicks Silent Night-- sounds like she had a rough night the night before. #3- Dominick The Donkey -- do you need to ask? #4 -- The Entire Twisted Sister Christmas Album #5-- The Christmas Canon by TSO. Pachelbel did not write the damn thing as a Christmas Song.)

Normally, we have a nice diner Christmas Eve (we work a short day at Northfield, so I actually have time to cook).

This year, my wife's aunt and brother will be staying with us, and my daughter's new beau will be with us as well. The menu is cioppinio (seafood soup), a spiral sliced ham (yea, I know), herb-steamed potatoes and a vegetable to be announced. The Christians will go to 7:45 service, then we are all going to Nela Park to walk the huge General Electric light display. Then we return to the house for cigars and either port or bourbon around 11, take a walk and then watch the midnight showing of A Christmas Story on TBS.

(Did you know Peter Billinglsey, who played Ralphie, is the executive producer of Iron Man and also of Four Christmases?).

(Did you know, part deux, the Red Ryder BB gun that was prominently featured in A Christmas Story, in which the main character requests one for Christmas, but is repeatedly rebuffed with the warning "You'll shoot your eye out", does not actually exist? The movie's fictional BB gun, described as the "Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time", does not correspond to any production model nor even a prototype; the Red Ryder featured in the movie was specially made to match author Jean Shepherd's story (which may be artistic license, but was the configuration Shepard claimed to remember).

Christmas Day, we do the traditional Jewish Christmas. Sleep in, then a movie (looks like it is going to be Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories this year) and then Chinese food-- usually a buffet, because, let's face it, other than Yom Kippur, is there any holiday where Jews don't eat too much?

I will coach a couple indoor soccer matches on boxing day, and then will work from 3 until the last race and then it's back to normal.

Anyhow, whatever and however you celebrate, do it in moderation and enjoy. See you next time.