Yeah for Christmas!!

With my views (or non-views) on religion being what they are, it may seem strange that I LOVE Christmas. I think the reason for this is two-fold: 1) Christmas is so very commercialized that it is no longer about Jesus' birthday and what not (which actually took place in July and not December, the Catholic church moved the celebration to December so as to try to win over the pagans during their celebration of the winter solstice, bit of trivia for you there). and 2) The "meaning" of Christmas to me is a time to be with family, to be kind to others, to appreciate the wonders of humanity... which I suppose are things we should be doing everyday, but isn't it a lot easier to do when surrounded by tinsel, lights, pretty things to eat and festive music?? I love this time of year, its the rest of winter that sucks... I suppose it will not be so bad when I get out of frigid Ohio.
So to my fellow non-believers: suck it up, Christmas doesn't belong to the Christians any more, and Christians, you are just going to have to accept that. Unless you want to tell retail stores they can no longer endorse "your" holiday.
I will be celebrating Christmas in the beautiful city of Seattle this year with my dad and his family. I have not seen may dad for almost two years and have not spent a Christmas with him in 6 years. Adam has never been to Seattle and I lived there for several years so I get to play tour guide. I am really excited.
To everyone:
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Winter Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year! May we ALL practice tolerance, or better yet, acceptance this holiday season.