Every year since 2010 I’ve done a series of December diaries focusing on a variety of seasonal topics ranging from music to food to ugly sweaters. (Full disclosure: I did ONE Seasonal diary in 2008, and 2009 was the first December K2 was with us so I was a little distracted :-)). My Seasonal 2018 series began with Favorite Holiday Cookbooks, continued with Seasonal Scents and wraps up tonight with something completely different. No, really.
Don’t worry if Christmas isn’t your thing- while my personal December perspective is primarily secular cultural Christian-based with a vibrant dose of earth-centered Winter Solstice mixed in because Unitarian Universalism is my chosen path, these diaries are NOT meant to be siege locations in the War On Christmas. In other words, if there’s a holiday in December that makes you happy, that you mark differently than all the other days, or that involves negotiating about who brings what food… or even if there isn’t... this is a place for you!
I encourage you to pour a glass of your desired libation as we hop over the Story Break and our nightly request from your humble community diary writers, and into tonight’s topic…
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I’ve had decades worth of Christmases… as a child, as a young adult returning home, and finally a quarter century in my own household with Mr. Brillig. For every one of those holidays, I’ve been at a home. I never missed a Christmas at home with my Mom until I got married and we did the “whoever gets us at Thanksgiving doesn’t get us at Christmas but we’ll be there a day or two later” routine. When my Mom died in 2001, I insisted for many years that we spend Christmas morning at home, because it hurt to be anywhere else, since where I wanted to be was at my Mom’s. We’d drive to Mr. Brillig’s family after breakfast.
As the years passed, we developed a Christmas Eve tradition of church and dinner afterwards with another family with whom we share reciprocal godparent duties. We spent one or two with Mr. Brillig’s family at their Maine or NH homes. But always, always at home.
Not. This. Year.
When K1 started college, we learned that scheduling a family vacation is hard when you don’t know with certainty where some of your family will be living and what they’ll be doing six months from winter planning. We’re all stressed, tired, exhausted, and cold, and haven’t taken an actual vacation where Mr. Brillig doesn’t bring his work laptop in over three years. So tomorrow I’ll drive 350 miles to the city where K1 is finishing up the first half of her junior year, and on Thursday I’ll drive her back home. Then on Saturday, Casa Brillig is taking off for a week in Mexico… Cancun, to be precise-ish. None of us have ever been to Mexico, and this will be the first time K2 has traveled internationally since we all flew home from Ethiopia a little over nine years ago. We’re planning to relax, take full advantage of an all-inclusive resort in a country where three of us can imbibe alcohol legally, and slather sunscreen on body parts that normally don’t see the sunlight for another six months.
It’s made for a weird December. We are Real Tree people (I need to remember to use this topic for next year’s series!) but didn’t want a dry piece of foliage unattended for a week, so we have the artificial tree normally in our mudroom providing the requisite multicolored light cheer. It doesn’t have ornaments, though. We’ll be missing Christmas Eve services, and we have NEVER worn shorts on Christmas!! It’s definitely the most different thing we’ve ever done, and we’re all terribly excited to see what it’s like (well, K1 isn’t excited yet but she had a final yesterday and two tomorrow, so she’s a little single-minded right now :-)).
What’s the most different holiday you’ve ever spent? Share in the comments, please, after first perusing that trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures that ALWAYS appears in this nightly community diary series! Tonight’s Top Goodness is courtesy of the one of the best individuals I know, BeninSC!
Oh… in case anyone wonders what I want for Christmas… comment nominations. Lots of em. Every day. Please?
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From MikeTheLiberal:
We have another winner with this comment by Captain Frogbert. And don’t miss the fine graphic elsewhere in the thread.
Highlighted by niftywriter:
Is this comment by JerseyDevil, snarking heavily on Devin Nunes.
Highlighted by Onomastic:
Is this comment by Yasuragi, about Queen Kristina. Introducing stride-wallops!
From BeninSC:
I’m submitting this comment by Monsieur Georges, but the actual comment featured is in the body of the diary, by Bookgirl, quoted in Monsieur Georges‘s comment. Bookgirl’s diary is on Contemporary Fiction Views.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 17th, 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for December 18, 2018. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!