December 25: It's was just a Tuesday and/or Living the Sterotype

I grew up celebrating Christmukkah.

My mom is Jewish, my dad was not and we did it all.

I have childhood memories of tromping through the woods to cut down our Christmas tree, opening one present on Christmas Eve and excitedly waking up on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. On my mom's side of the family only one of her siblings married someone Jewish, so Christmas Day was spent on the road, visiting both sides of the family. First stop was my dad's parent's house for a short visit and present opening with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Then back on the road to my mom's brother's house, for a big meal and more grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and gifts. Usually on the way home we'd stop back by my dad's parents house, sometimes for dessert, sometimes just to visit a little longer with them.

And on those years when Hanukkah coincided, we'd get home from all of that and light the candles and I'd be handed one more, differently wrapped, present.

Sometime during my teenage years I told my mom I just wanted to do Hanukkah. The only religious upbringing I had centered around Judaism, the christian holidays we celebrated were in completely secular ways. I didn't need the mountain of presents I was getting between the two holidays and really, it just seemed like too much.

We kept celebrating both for the most part, shifting from the back and forth with family to just spending time as a family of three at the beach, mostly because my mom was afraid it would hurt my dad's feelings if we didn't do Christmas as well.

Anyway, fast forwarding to the present, I spent last weekend with my mom and her side of the family, finally celebrating Hanukkah. I'm spending next weekend at the beach with my mom, up until New Year's Day. So with that in mind, I really wasn't that interested in driving back up north on Monday after work, after just having returned home on Sunday night. When my mom spoke of Christmas, I responded with "you mean Tuesday?" and she realized that it wasn't really necessary for me to make the return trip home.

So I stayed home and loved it.

My office closed at 2 pm on the 24th so I got a yummy late lunch in my neighborhood, ran a few errands and was home by 4 pm, curled up on the sofa with a pile of books. Yesterday I slept in, read, watched Home Alone and a House Hunters Marathon, went to the movies, picked up takeout in Chinatown* and then came home and read some more.

It was a pretty perfect day and a half. No schedule, no expectations, no talking. Just doing what I wanted, when I wanted.

I hope you had a great day as well - whether you were celebrating Christmas or just enjoying a nice Tuesday off like I did!

* insert Jew on Christmas sterotype here