Our tribe will spend all day at home. The In-Laws will come over Christmas Eve and spend the night. Before going to bed we will read the Christmas Story from the Book of John and tuck the kids into bed. In the morning we will see what Santa brought. Yeah!!!

We will then have a huge breakfast, well Brunch really. Then we will wait for the rest of the family to show up for Christmas dinner.

before the other side of the tribe broke down, we spent the first week before christmas with mom's tribe, then the day of at home, then the next week with dad's tribe.

then of course there were work parties for dad (whole family events) and then parties at school and at friend's houses.

chruch was always insane because we had three branches in the family (Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist) and we had to go to all of those services

things have calmed down now though, and it is more about family and spending time together than schedules and agendas.

the villagers all like it much better now.

Eyes - I think you misunderstand me.

When I talk about my villagers - I'm talking about my VV people.

When I talk about people pouting and complaining - I'm talking about people in the real world who get offended if a store clerks wishes them a merry Christmas or if their neighbor puts up a manger display. Not my family.

As for my family - well, one brother lives in Arizona. Another has decided he'd rather be an alcoholic and drug addict & live on the streets then be with the family who loves him. The final one will celebrate Christmas with us while mom complains about having to "do all the work" - which she wouldn't have to do if she'd just accept there's more then one way to do a task.

bah, i quit caring a long time ago if people said "the wrong thing". as far as i am concerned, they are expressing their beleifs, and if they don't happen to match mine, oh well.

respect and tolerance are two way streets.

True story. On another board I wished some folks there a happy Haunukkah. A guy who claims to be Christian told me I was being anti-Semetic for doing so. (While the Jewish members all wished me Happy Haunukkah in return.) Some of the athiest members went off on me too.

There's a possibility that my ancestors on my mom's side weren't originally Catholic. I'm going to do a midocondrial DNA test plus a family tree after the holidays to see if we're right.

In the meantime, I'm chosing to honor both holidays as best I can. And I don't care if other people think I'm being a bigot for doing so. (Though their "logic" for saying this makes no sense.) Eh, humans are SO weird!

But this is why I prefer my fake people to my real ones.

So - Happy Haunukkah and Merry Christmas!

the people who get upset are the people who feel threatened. christians who get upset probably aren't completely sure of their own faith. athiests, well, people who aren't mainstream get "attacked" all the itme, so are very defensive quite often.

they need to take a lesson from the villagers and learn to get along with their own lives and let it go.

can you imagine if there really were factions in our little villages that just refused to get along? they wouldn't survive.

Huh? How is wishing someone a Happy Chanukah being anti-Semetic?

Would I be accused of being anti-Christian if I wished that guy a Merry Christmas?

exactly! one thing is she said it while setting his pants on fire but i really doubt she would do that.

need to toss that guy into the ocean (or throw him on the cactus) then make him spend the holidays in my village with only the GC to keep him company!

that'll teach him.

Here's wishing everyone, including that stupid guy, Happy Holidays - whether it's Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, Pancha Ganapati or whatever else anyone anywhere in the world celebrates

i just checked on my village, and they are dfinately celibrating something! the GC is throwing another party!