>This is NOT my house.

Yes, today I am celebrating the day after Thanksgiving. You know, the day when I do NOT go to the malls and fight the crowds and spend too much money on things that will be broken and/or forgotten by January sixth. Is this really what the holiday is about? Originally, it was a Solstice celebration, marking the time the days begin getting longer, the slow return of warmth and growing things. That is what I choose to celebrate, and it doesn’t involve money. Just joy. I bemoan the fact that we have commercialized every possible holiday, and forget what they really represent. So I choose not to participate. Any gifts I give would be to people who already have more of everything than most people on the planet. So I would give to Heifer International in their name. Does this make me a smug, better-than-you person, a too-cheap-and-lazy-to-find-gifts person? Gee, I hope not. Because that’s not what I intend. I just think that if I do have any money to spare, it should go to those who have little or nothing, not to those that do. Of course, I still buy things for myself, like Farscape DVDs, so how does that fit into my view of myself? What do you think, readers? Am I just a poor excuse for a human being, or what?

Today is also the day I always put up the lights and other decorations, back when I still those things. I usually don’t decorate at all anymore, except maybe I will put up my tiny fiber-optic tree with the white lights. It is very cheery in the dark of winter. I like winter, I like lights. It’s all good.