Ah, life is good, and today it was particularly good. I did indeed have a very merry Christmas. We had some beloved friends and their eldest daughter and her significant other over for Christmas dinner. We've done this for 10 years in a row now, it's become a tradition, just as we've been at their home for 10 years in a row for their Seder celebrations (yes, they're Jews). Our assorted children don't always make it, they're not all in the same city with us and sometimes they're here and sometimes they're not, and whoever's around is always invited, but the one constant is my wife and me and our two dearest friends. I cracked open a bottle of The Macallan I bought for the occasion, as well as several bottles of my homemade Chateau Sinister wine for those who don't like scotch (the poor fools), and there was much laughter and joie de vivre. Good food, good drinks, good friends, family, spirited conversation, good feelings all around... Does it get any better than that? I don't think so, but if it does I want to hear about it.
And isn't that what it's supposed to be about? Loving and sharing and caring and... well, okay, so maybe I had one more scotch than I really needed and it's made me a little maudlin. But as I said in my first post in this thread, it's about all that's best and most noble in human nature. If that manifests itself in your life as Christianity, and you genuinely try to live Christ's message of love and kindness and forgiveness, good for you, that's certainly worth celebrating. If you're a Jew and it's about Hanukkah, a tale of survival and endurance against fearsome odds and what that teaches about how you must treat others, good for you too, that too is certainly worth celebrating. If you're Wiccan or pagan or something like that and you're celebrating the solstice, the rebirth of the sun, the Nature that nurtures us, also good for you, that's another thing worth celebrating. Truly, there is much to celebrate, whatever your beliefs are, and we need to do it, to remind ourselves of what really matters.