Happy Winter Solstice!

Growing up, it was just my mom and me, and my mom is a lapsed-Jewish Unitarian with strong though amorphous pagan tendencies. She never wanted to celebrate the Jewish holidays in any traditional way, but she had an extremely strong antipathy toward anything to do with Christian holidays (she's mellowed enough now to enjoy the occasional lit up reindeer).

So I was the kid who got scorned by both the Christian and Jewish kids at school, and my mom wanted to give me a winter holiday to celebrate, too. She picked December 21st, (usually) the winter solstice. We had a little tree decorated with popcorn strands and a dove on top (with the peace symbology, not the Christian).

Though I celebrate secular Christmas with friends and coworkers now out of convenience (and a love of sparkly lights), the Solstice will always be my holiday (and holy day). I hate it when the days grow shorter and the nights darker. After tonight, we'll be past the worst of it, and whatever else winter brings, I know that the sun is slowly making its way back. I think that's cause for celebration, whatever your spiritual beliefs (assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere, of course)(presumably my Southern Hemisphere flisters are reading this with a smug smile as they get ready for their holiday beach trips).

So I'm wishing you all a warm and happy winter season. Happy Midwinter!

Happy Winter Solstice!

Growing up, it was just my mom and me, and my mom is a lapsed-Jewish Unitarian with strong though amorphous pagan tendencies. She never wanted to celebrate the Jewish holidays in any traditional way, but she had an extremely strong antipathy toward anything to do with Christian holidays (she's mellowed enough now to enjoy the occasional lit up reindeer).

So I was the kid who got scorned by both the Christian and Jewish kids at school, and my mom wanted to give me a winter holiday to celebrate, too. She picked December 21st, (usually) the winter solstice. We had a little tree decorated with popcorn strands and a dove on top (with the peace symbology, not the Christian).

Though I celebrate secular Christmas with friends and coworkers now out of convenience (and a love of sparkly lights), the Solstice will always be my holiday (and holy day). I hate it when the days grow shorter and the nights darker. After tonight, we'll be past the worst of it, and whatever else winter brings, I know that the sun is slowly making its way back. I think that's cause for celebration, whatever your spiritual beliefs (assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere, of course)(presumably my Southern Hemisphere flisters are reading this with a smug smile as they get ready for their holiday beach trips).

So I'm wishing you all a warm and happy winter season. Happy Midwinter!

Quick catch-up

Catching up on the last week or so --

* Yuletide is finished and posted! A full day early, which is almost a record for me, so now I have to dislike myself, too. Good luck to everyone still finishing! Remember, the more you stress, the more bears get their wings! Er, or something like that, I've heard?

* I still haven't watched last week's Merlin. At this point, might wait until just before this week's. Finale, sob. I have so much anxiety over this finale

* I saw Sherlock 2 and MI:4 last weekend. I have not had that much fun at the movies in one weekend in a long time. And wow, slashtastic, if you're into that sort of thing.

We saw MI:4 at the Smithsonian IMAX screen at the Air & Space Museum, which was awesome as always. We have an AMC "IMAX" much, much closer, which is also a nice screen, but if you want the full six-story IMAX experience, you pretty much have to schlep out to the museum.

But the best part was that I idly tweeted that I was seeing the movie and said "Thanks, Smithsonian!" -- and Monday morning, I got a cheery "You're welcome!" response from the Smithsonian IMAX twitter account. I didn't even know they had a twitter account!

* More LJ shenanigans, I see. I don't see much effect from it personally, other than some comm irritations. I really wish I liked Dreamwidth better.

* Just one more week (and a bit) of 2011! Wow, I cannot wait to see the back of it. What a craptastic year.