We Need a Little (Jewish) Christmas

It's been a bit of a Grinchmas around our house this year.  Both the Hubby and I have been sick since before Thanksgiving, so not only did I miss out on celebrating Thanksgivukkah, I've now practically missed the entirety of the Christmas season as well.  I really like Christmas.  I enjoy the lights, listening to The Nutcracker on repeat, and decorating the tree.  Yes, we're Jewish, and we're raising our son in a Jewish home, but we both like Christmas, and so we celebrate it with flair.  It's not a religious holiday for us, but rather a reason to share a meal with friends and family and celebrate surviving another year.

We did have a slight respite from illness that allowed us the time to get a tree.  Thank goodness, otherwise we would most certainly be the house without Christmas.  It was chilly in Los Angeles on the day we picked out our Christmas tree, which was a nice change, as I'm pretty sure the last couple of years it's been about eighty degrees at the tree lot.  I suppose that the temperatures in LA are probably pretty similar to those in Bethlehem (after all, it is a desert), but picking out a Christmas tree in summer weather just feels...wrong.  Anyway, it was very exciting to have an excuse to put the Muffin Man in his cute red hat. 

We actually had to go to three tree lots to find a tree, as places were sold out of trees in the size we wanted.  Doesn't that just seem wrong?  That's basically like selling out of Christmas; there should be some law against that.  The truth is that it worked out in the end, because we got the perfect tree and all the money made at the lot went to a really, really worthy cause (Delancey Street does such good things for so many people).  Plus the folks working there were super nice, super helpful and even tied our tree onto our car for us.  Chris usually has to do the tying-on, and while I know he has mad Boy Scout knot-tying skills, the Delancey Street guy's looked just a teensy bit more secure.

Helping Daddy put up the tree.

I still haven't had the time or energy to put the Christmas ornament boxes back in the garage, but whatever.  I suppose if I never get them put away at least it'll be more convenient when I have to take the tree down in a week or two.  I'm more concerned about the fact that I haven't purchased a single present, and Christmas is less than a week away.  Thank God for Amazon Prime!

I mean, really, shouldn't every Jewish Christmas tree have a Star of David tree topper and a few strings of menorah lights?