Aneclecticmind.com Website Review

web site and blog for maria langer, commercial helicopter pilot, freelance writer, jewelry maker, beekeeper, and serious am*teur. i’m sure that’s true. but i haven’t been thinking about it the way everyone else has. i haven’t been thinking about buying lots of gifts and getting the best deals on them. i haven’t been thinking about christmas lights or trees or decorations. i haven’t been thinking about making holiday dinner or travel plans. i haven’t been thinking about recipes or picky eaters or squeezing people around a table that might be too small. i haven’t been thinking about traffic or bridge tolls or parking. i haven’t been thinking about the inevitable battle of ideas — red vs. blue — that’s certain to be a major part of any family gathering in the u.s. in other words, i’m not thinking about christmas the way most people are. instead, i’m reflecting on what christmas used to be at my home and how it’s different now. bear with me while i tell you a little about christmas at my house when i was a kid was probably a lot like every other middle clas* family’s. it included a christmas tree — normally live cut — with lots of decorations, some of which had been handed down as family heirlooms. some years, there was an ho train around the base of the tree and antique figures, likely made from lead, skating on a mirror ice rink. we usually spent christmas eve at our house, often with two or four grandparents. my mother made dinner, which was normally based around seafood. she seemed to think that catholic tradition meant no meat on christmas eve and if i had an internet connection right now, i’d look it up to see if she was right. it doesn’t really matter, though. we usually opened gifts at midnight on christmas eve, sometimes after attending midnight mas*. the year i realized santa wasn’t real is the year my 6’4″ father showed up at our house in a santa suit. on christmas day, we went to my mother’s brother’s house about 10 miles away. i had two cousins — i suppose i still do, although i