Five Festive Insights

Blogs are a fun way of jumping around, sneaking little peaks into other people's creations. A couple of my women friends are involved with a web ring that participates in what's called a "Friday Five" -- five questions to answer, providing a bit of insight into yourself. Some are pure fun or just plain silly, while other are a bit more contemplative or provocative. I like these kinds of little quizzes -- they're fun to contemplate, sometimes surprising even myself with my own answers, and they are fun to read, sometimes learning something new about an old friend.
Recently I visited the blog of an old friend, my college roommate, and within her beautiful post she referenced an online acquaintance, along with a link to that person's blog. I clicked and perused this new site a bit, scrolling down until I came to a new "Friday Five," reading with a smile as this unknown-to-me woman wrote about five holiday issues she deals with. I liked it, and I lifted it for my own use today, for my own "Friday Five" (I hope that's OK, women friends!).

Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....

1. dessert/cookie/family food: Fruit cake gets such a bad wrap. I felt bad for it ... until someone actually gave me a fruit cake. Bad wrap indeed. It weighed more than my newborn child, and it's like eating dry, candied scrapple.
   


2. beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...) My family isn't into this much anymore due to the demons of cholesterol, but I remember when I was very young the carton of eggnog came out during this time of year. I learned that my dad loved eggnog, and that experience was very new to me. I was fascinated and thought it was a very cool, very awesome, very grown-up thing. I got it into my childish head that if I took a sip of my dad's eggnog I would be entertaining a morsel of the clouds of heaven on my little tongue. I took a sip, and it was N-A-S-T-Y! The nastiest thing I had ever tasted. That ain't heaven -- or at least, it'd better not be or we are all in for a major disappointment at The Last Day!
   


3. tradition (church, family, other) I will admit it -- I am that person who likes to distribute gifts one at a time, to make the moment last. People hate me. When I was younger, it was my job every year to distribute the gifts, and I did a fantastic job. I was usurped last year when a new tradition began: every man (or child) for himself. We all sat down near the tree, and suddenly every child in our family found their presents and tore into them ... all at the same time. Within 45 seconds every single gift was opened, and the brightly papered, beautifully arranged mountain was reduced to a ragged pile of shredded wrappings. It sucked.
   


4. decoration: [I have to borrow what this person said on her website because it was just too perfect]: "Santa and the baby Jesus in the same venue. Santa does not belong in the manger scene. Jesus should stay out of the sleigh."


5. gift (received or given) Received from my husband: "The Passion" CD. You know, Mel Gibson's controversial movie about Jesus and his last days before the crucifixion. First, he took me to see the movie on my birthday. Then the soundtrack for Christmas? I didn't quite understand why he thought I would like to listen to that. While the movie was well-done and I was moved by it, it was painfully difficult to watch ... so what, the soundtrack would be nice "mood music" or something? Light some candles, have a glass of wine, and listen to the music of Christ being tortured and crucified?
6. BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it: I cannot get the sound of "Ave Maria" on accordion out of my head ... That, and "Mr. Santa," sung by Amy Grant (and probably others, but this was my introduction to it). It's bad enough kids rev up the whiny engines this time of year, but for an adult to put whiny greediness to song is just wrong.
   

This was fun. Happy Friday!