Christmas Pterodactyl!

To begin, if you don't watch Community, my title will make no sense whatsoever.  Also, shame on you, it's the best thing on t.v.  Watch it.  Seriously.  Right now.

Anyway, my point is not actually Christmas Pterodactyl!.  I've been thinking about ritual a lot lately.  For as much as I've always been a bit of a non-conformist, I have to admit there's a deep-seated yearning in me for all the nerdy traditional stuff...  Singing carols, going sledding, spending all day baking cookies with family, that sort of thing.  But it doesn't come easy to me.  As a non-christian, non-pagan, there's no spiritual history.  I don't have a thick cultural influence with a wealth of time-honored tradition to pull from.  And without kids of my own yet, I feel a little silly trying to make a big deal out of kitschy holiday things.  So how do I decide what's important without getting burned out until I just quit the whole thing all together?

Which brings me back to Community.  I love Abed's Christmas revelation: 'The meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning. And it can mean whatever we want.'  Simple enough statement, but it sums it right up for me.

So, back to this year.  I bought a new Christmas tree, one so effort-free that even my lazy ass can't procrastinate putting it up.  I hung garland and stockings and decorated over the t.v.  That's the extent of my domestic effort.  And it's perfect.

I also got to test drive some new family events (snacking on Christmas cookies made with Chris and her family as I type) which has me looking forward to the things I might make important 'someday'.  Things from my childhood, like home-made pajamas to open on Christmas Eve, and things that just seem worth it in my mind, like a fresh-cut fir filling the house with pine scent.

And as for right now, tomorrow I'm going to get a delicious coffee house latte, make waffles, open Christmas presents with Kitsu (Yes, I bought presents for my dog.  It's ironic.  Don't judge me.), and then I'm going to pop open a bottle of Martinelli's and play Xbox until it's time to leave for my mom's.  That last part is weird, I know...  Non-conformist and all.  But I like it.