first tree

growing up, we put together our christmas tree a few days before christmas. this year, for some reason, mrs. w and i felt very motivated to get in the holiday spirit. we found a great tree on craig's list for $35 and some flipping sweet decorations at target.

decorations have gotten much cooler since i was a kid. thanks to george lucas for his wilingness to license star wars on anything and everything:

3PO+darth+yoda

final touches on our first tree

headed to niceville next week for turkey day and spending christmas with my fam in the 'nati. i was sad that i would miss turkey day with my parents (first time ever). my mom, to my suprise, took it in stride. "well, it's not a big deal. we'll see you at christmas."

christmas at the wintermutes will be different for mrs. wintermute. first, there's the obvious one: no church. we're just about the least religious family on earth. not anti-religious, just a-religious. my dad recently went to temple a few times while my mom was visiting our grandmother for a month, but i think it was for the community aspect b/c he got sick of sitting by himself at home. a few years ago my parents had this big revival where they started going to temple regularly. then the temple politics (the jains and hindus share one temple, and the hindus didn't want the jains to put up some of their idols, so the jains were pissed) disgusted them and that was it. i think that about sums up why organized religion does not appeal to me.

in the future, i don't think mrs. wintermute and i will take our munchkins to church or temple or whatever. i do want to try hard for them to retain their cultural heritage (well, the indian part. living in america, it won't be hard to keep the american side!). the hardest part will be language. already my skills have diminished greatly. i learned gujurati from hearing my parents speaking it around the house and having my grandmother live with us. short of enrolling little neo and luke in langugage classes, they won't have any connection.

another big difference is that we are way laid back when it comes to opening gifts. everyone sleeps in until 10, strolls downstairs for a big leisurely breakfast, then we get to the gifts around noon. no sense in getting up early to open gifts while you're cranky.

then we get on the phone and call almost all our relatives to wish them a happy holiday. with a large dispersed family, christmas is just about the one day you can get everyone on the phone at once.

finally, another big difference (a great one at that) is that the day before HAS to include a trip to skyline chili or penn station. can't wait.