happy birthmasskwanzmahannuka day

Well, I have had 2 hours of sleep. The pregnancy restless legs at night had me doing the 4 – 5 hour late night dance party again. So when I fell asleep at 3 (which is actually good comparatively), and Jack woke up at 5am demanding to be sung the “A,B.C,D,E,F,G! song”, I knew this would be a rough morning. Its Tom’s birthday today and I wanted to let him sleep in. Which he did until 7:30, pretty luxurious for around here. Jack & Marlowe sung their version of Happy Birthday at the table to him (and themselves, and other random people) and he was happy to see them in such good moods (waffles and syrup had nothing to do with it). Tom is 32, and that is amazing to me. A father of 4 at 32, wow. He is such an amazing father though and I am so proud of him. Lately he has been obsessed with researching his ancestry on-line. It’s totally perfect for his personality: organization and a puzzle. He has found so much more than I thought he would find. Copies of the census’ from 1880 showing the first arrivals from Ireland, 8 kids and all. People look at me cross-eyed when I tell them I am having my 4th kid. But back then (and in Irish Catholic families), that was pretty normal. I can’t imagine having 8 kids at a time when there was no formula, no huggies, no bouncy seat… it must have been so hard. Many of Tom’s relatives going back were named Cornelius. So now he is on a big kick to name the new boy this. Um, no. Its hard to tell when he is serious because he is such a joker so much of the time, but he is really serious. I dunno’ I think of Planet of The Apes, or Don Cornelius, the first host of Soul Train (my husband being born in 76′ doesn’t have those same 70’s connections). Tom showed Ru all of the family tree he had found so far on his computer. She was interested, but said it was creepy. I suppose it is, looking back on the dead relatives that are long forgotten. I would prefer to have known someone I name my child after. Perhaps there was an admirable Cornelius in there somewhere, but what if one of them was a right bastard? Tom loves the story of a great great uncle that was an apprentice pilot and quit to join the circus. I wonder what happened to that guy? Anyway, we are kind of stumped on the name honestly. Its hard to name someone you haven’t met yet, and I am sort of superstitious about it too. I’d like to think he has a say in it somehow. My friend Josh was over last night and he said that he was almost named Oliver. I asked if he thinks his life would have been different if his name was different. He said yes, and that a small change would make a big change over time. True, perhaps you meet someone you wouldn’t have met otherwise while waiting for your name to be called alphabetically. So when the new baby is here, his fate may be changed just by a wince from gas when we ask him “how about Cornelius?”. The first in a lifetime of life changing decisions. Some with more or less thought put into them.
So I am finishing this post a couple of days later now. I am at the end of the pregnancy and in the zone to either stare at the wall, sleep or reorganize my closet. Writing has escaped the brain, and all effort is spent on pre-production of the Christmas event. I have been enjoying a good laugh on the “war on Christmas” however. Brought to you by people who are greatly offended by use of the word “X-Mass” (the X is an abbreviation of the Greek alphabet’s spelling of the Greek word for Christ), and that Merry Christmas is not used in large chain store’s advertisements, but replaced by Happy Holidays. Would you feel better if there were animated images of the baby Jesus or the three wise men poking from behind a photo of a snow blower or flannel PJ’s for sale? Cant we recognize that we are living in a multi-cultural society and there are a few holidays celebrated at this time of year? OK, it is in poor taste to change the words to traditional Christmas songs, and it is dumb to say something is a “holiday tree” or a “family tree”, but ultimately they are selling crap and we just don’t have to act as consumers and boycott this or that store to wave our entitlement flags the highest, you are asking a capitalist organization that makes money off of consumer greed and the marketing of secular Christmas to be sensitive to one religion’s part of the holiday, how can this be what is important about Christmas? Just celebrate it the way you want to and put your energy into showing the way you think “giving” or “not giving” should be this time of year. If someone says “Happy Kwanzaa” to me… I am not offended. I would think that was very nice. And its true, we are all too afraid of offending someone. But a “war” on Christmas? p-lease. No where near as oxymoronic as the term “War on Terror”, but still, the misuse of the word “war” makes me think it comes from a similar polarizing and paranoid source. It is a holiday celebrated in many different ways. And even if a family who doesn’t believe in the birth of Christ chooses to celebrate Christmas. I would think a “good Christian” would just be thankful for a family choosing to celebrate something that brought their family together. The secular Christmas themes are a part of this culture at this point and evolving with the times as it has been doing even before a Coke advertisement made Santa jolly. And lets not forget all of the changes made to “Christmas” when the Puritans decided to oust the Pagan symbolism. What Christmas are you defending from this war? The white Christian majority version of it? …OK, tangent, sorry.
We had some of Tom’s old friends over last night to celebrate Tom’s birthday. It was so nice to see them, and Tom was so happy they were visiting. One has been living in New Zealand for a couple of years so it was great timing that his visit was this week. We are about to go through, well… a tremendous bonding experience, and it was good that we got in some fun before the diapers hit the fan. We had fondue, a birthday tradition Tom has had since he was little, and Ru reported that the Christmas cookies we made earlier tasted horrible dipped in hot cheese. She hung out all night with us. I love that she is able to do this and confident in herself enough to join in the conversation. Tom loved his birthday (and his new iPod) and I was happy we were able to put some attention on him for a change. Now onward to next week and the annual stuff giving around our holiday tree (tee hee). No really, I love Christmas, but I really look forward to the time when the presents have been unwrapped, the tree has been chipped, the baby has been born, family has been visited and the nog has been drunk and we can take some time to just relax a bit and begin to look forward to spring.