So how was your Christmas?

Really?

Are you sure?

Because our girl McMegan is here to tell you that your Christmas actually sucked harder than a Hard Sucking Machine (Hammacher Schlemmer, Christmas 2012 catalog – page 37 – bottom right corner) and wasn’t near as winter wonderland wonderful as hers was. Ready to be diminished by being told that your family and friends are a bunch of hapless but well-meaning doofuses who wouldn’t know a béchamel from a sauce foyot?

On Christmas Eve, a US drone attacked a vehicle and killed at least two suspected al Qaeda militants in the southern Bayda province of Yemen. The attack happened in the early evening in the country. It was believed a “mid-level al Qaeda Yemeni operative,” Abdel-Raouf Naseeb, was one of the men killed. It was the first strike in Yemen in 47 days, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Some traditions last decades, others only for two or three years but all make Christmas unique for our individual families. Sometimes, it is life intruding that breaks the traditions.

But as I stated before, I wonder what parents want for their kids. The common expectations appear to be for them to be successful in some way. Usually monetarily. Or in some instances, well educated. Sometimes famous and important or strong and competitive. To have a big house and big car and what ever else their position would afford them.

I wonder how many though want their children to be intelligent, wise, compassionate, humble, thoughtful, creative, imaginative, generous and enlightened. To become the best person they can be regardless of their otherwise stature.

Couldn’t be Christmas this year without one more..

Christmas is about being with the people you love. It is about appreciating the others you have in your life and taking a moment out of your busy life to acknowledge the value of living.

I watch this every year, because I’ve always loved this story.

This time of year, I’ve written before, is about grace from unlikely beginnings and light in dark times. The older I get, the less interested I am in the war on Christmas, the war over Christmas, the endless back and forth. It’s exhausting, and it isn’t the point.

Actually Christmas Eve is still Advent so I’m kicking off with a modern arrangement of ‘Veni, veni, Emmanuel’ if you don’t know the Latin version you’ve still definitely heard it in some form or another, ‘O Come, o come, Emmanuel’ is one of those pieces of music that just about every singer has covered. I love the original Latin version, I sang it as a child and this year I’ve had the pleasure of hearing three of my grandsons sing it first in Latin and then in Danish. As a surprise treat for me they hid the fact that they’d learnt it in English too and regaled me with it this afternoon.

Two words: Pia Zadora! Yes Pia Zadora stars in this low budget holiday sci-fi movie, and that should tell you plenty. Granted it’s a young Pia Zadora, not super-star Pia, circa Lucky Lady, but still, any movie that stars Pia Zadora is gonna be high camp goofiness. And Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is no exception.

The Holiday Season brings with it a seemingly endless train of songs, all of which are so beaten into our heads that I feel like I’m chewing rubber bands. Exactly how many verses are there to Good King Wenceslas, or the First Noel, anyway? Not to mention the commercialized songs, the horrible drummer boy, the nasty reindeer, the irritating Santa, and popped-up orchestrations of ancient carols. I’m sure we all have our least favorites, but I think we can agree that the Partridge in a Pear Tree song is close to the top of any list.

I’m not the only one who noticed that the song involves a fair number of swimming swans, drummers drumming and golden rings. I’ve often wondered what one would do with 12 partridges and 12 pear trees.