Holiday Traditions
Dec. 25th, 2016 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMy family has given up any pretense of doing Christmas properly. To be fair, we're pagans, anyway, but we no longer even pretend we're going to wait to open presents until some "decent hour." Yesterday, Christmas Eve day, Mason talked us into opening presents after I went on a coffee and donut run. So, we've had two full days of playing with out haul.
Besides, Santa always fills up stockings and brings a few extra presents for Christmas morning.
As usual, Mason was the big winner. He got all sorts of PS4 games, tee-shirts, and LEGO sets. Shawn mostly wanted some fancy, cut-glass plates and, predictably, socks. (Socks are a traditional gift for us.) I got more stationary and stamps. Pretty much everything a person could want--plus days to play with it all. My stamp album is getting difficult to close, but I'm still finding more and more stamps to put in their various places.
Shawn's (step)-brother Mark is still in the hospital. Sepsis is really hard to recover from. It's the thing that sent my dad into the hospital for months, and it seems to be on course to do the same for Mark. :-( We haven't been to see him yet, because his immune system is pretty crashed and he's not staying awake for more than a few hours. But, when he gets moved to a nursing home/recovery place, the one they're talking about sending him to is literally within walking distance of Shawn's work, so we'll be able to visit a lot. Which will be good, because very likely Karen (Mark's sister) will be headed back to Indiana at some point, and Joe (Mark's partner) is there a lot, but needs breaks, too. So, hopefully, we can help take over the "sisterly" duties.
Our relationship with Mark is much like it is with much of Shawn's family--very laissez-faire. We don't make a huge effort to stay in touch and that's mostly mutual, though with Mark, at least, we have being queer in common (though as a survivor of lesbian potlucks, that's not as much as you might thing. At least Joe is a pagan and a science fiction reader! Those things make up a huge gap).
Even though we had to find out that Mark was in the hospital via Facebook, I think he's always wished we were a little closer. Perhaps this is something we can rectify in the upcoming year. I've been thinking a lot about an article I read about How to Survive in Trump's America. In particular, 11. Make eye contact and small talk. The idea is that not only does talking to people breakdown social barriers--like, hey, so-and-so isn't just some '[ethnic group] menace, but a real person whom I know!," and also that it will be good to know who you can trust. If you never talk to real people, you never know who around you shares your political view. I've been very conscious of maintaining a lot of chatter in my daily life. I've always been the sort who talks to strangers (I'm THAT person), but I've also been thinking about other ways to build small, strong communities. Literally, one way is to stay in better touch with people. This is one of the reasons I've been trying to blog more regularly here, but also why I hope that we'll be able to spend more time with Mark in the future.
Of course, the article also suggests making friends abroad. I still haven't heard a peep from any of my international pen friends. But, then again, I also don't know much about how often people expect to write or anything about the aesthetic of this thing. I may break down and write a second letter to one of my people, though. i've got all this GOOD stationary going to waste otherwise!
The other things that are coming up is: my parent's visit before New Years, a reading at AZ Gallery in Lowertown on Jan. 10 at 7 pm, and a panel discussion on "Telling Our Story: LBGT Writers and Publications" for the Wells Fargo PRIDE Minnesota Team Member Network--which is a closed group, but they've had really good attendance lately (this is a phone-in thing? Skype? Google Hangouts? I'm not sure. Should be interesting, anyway.) That one has me thinking about where I went to find out about GLBT+ things back in the dark ages before the internet.
Hope you all have had a happy holiday.
Besides, Santa always fills up stockings and brings a few extra presents for Christmas morning.
As usual, Mason was the big winner. He got all sorts of PS4 games, tee-shirts, and LEGO sets. Shawn mostly wanted some fancy, cut-glass plates and, predictably, socks. (Socks are a traditional gift for us.) I got more stationary and stamps. Pretty much everything a person could want--plus days to play with it all. My stamp album is getting difficult to close, but I'm still finding more and more stamps to put in their various places.
Shawn's (step)-brother Mark is still in the hospital. Sepsis is really hard to recover from. It's the thing that sent my dad into the hospital for months, and it seems to be on course to do the same for Mark. :-( We haven't been to see him yet, because his immune system is pretty crashed and he's not staying awake for more than a few hours. But, when he gets moved to a nursing home/recovery place, the one they're talking about sending him to is literally within walking distance of Shawn's work, so we'll be able to visit a lot. Which will be good, because very likely Karen (Mark's sister) will be headed back to Indiana at some point, and Joe (Mark's partner) is there a lot, but needs breaks, too. So, hopefully, we can help take over the "sisterly" duties.
Our relationship with Mark is much like it is with much of Shawn's family--very laissez-faire. We don't make a huge effort to stay in touch and that's mostly mutual, though with Mark, at least, we have being queer in common (though as a survivor of lesbian potlucks, that's not as much as you might thing. At least Joe is a pagan and a science fiction reader! Those things make up a huge gap).
Even though we had to find out that Mark was in the hospital via Facebook, I think he's always wished we were a little closer. Perhaps this is something we can rectify in the upcoming year. I've been thinking a lot about an article I read about How to Survive in Trump's America. In particular, 11. Make eye contact and small talk. The idea is that not only does talking to people breakdown social barriers--like, hey, so-and-so isn't just some '[ethnic group] menace, but a real person whom I know!," and also that it will be good to know who you can trust. If you never talk to real people, you never know who around you shares your political view. I've been very conscious of maintaining a lot of chatter in my daily life. I've always been the sort who talks to strangers (I'm THAT person), but I've also been thinking about other ways to build small, strong communities. Literally, one way is to stay in better touch with people. This is one of the reasons I've been trying to blog more regularly here, but also why I hope that we'll be able to spend more time with Mark in the future.
Of course, the article also suggests making friends abroad. I still haven't heard a peep from any of my international pen friends. But, then again, I also don't know much about how often people expect to write or anything about the aesthetic of this thing. I may break down and write a second letter to one of my people, though. i've got all this GOOD stationary going to waste otherwise!
The other things that are coming up is: my parent's visit before New Years, a reading at AZ Gallery in Lowertown on Jan. 10 at 7 pm, and a panel discussion on "Telling Our Story: LBGT Writers and Publications" for the Wells Fargo PRIDE Minnesota Team Member Network--which is a closed group, but they've had really good attendance lately (this is a phone-in thing? Skype? Google Hangouts? I'm not sure. Should be interesting, anyway.) That one has me thinking about where I went to find out about GLBT+ things back in the dark ages before the internet.
Hope you all have had a happy holiday.