Your Monday Photo Shoot: Trees And Menorahs!

"Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles."

-Unknown

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show off your Christmas tree and/or Menorah or other seasonably appropriate holiday centerpiece. So, if you celebrate the Solstice or commemorate Kwanzaa, or, heck, just plain like the all, you're covered. We're focusing on this year's decorations, so recent pictures are preferred. But if you haven't gotten all set up yet, you can reach back in your archives.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah :)

I have showed plenty of photos of my official Christmas tree, but I don't show off the little mini-Christmas tree that I keep on my desk, so here it is! Sitting beside the tree, you see a white container of Hanukkah cookie mix, with a little dreidle cookie cutter. I couldn't pass it up. Next weekend I will make dreidle cookies, as we light the menorah. Yep, I have a Christmas tree, and we observe Hanukkah, because, see, I am Jewish by heritage, and Methodist by choice. Lonnnnnggggg story, but the short version is that I found out in my late 30's that my mother was Jewish. The way I feel about it, all believers can celebrate Hanukkah, so why not appreciate it right along with the traditions of Christmas? It's the best of all possible messages and spirit of this time of year!

Both traditions mean a lot to me, but I have one other holiday tradition in the way of a decoration that is always a part of our seasonal displays, my stuffed moose Ross, "Protector of the Presents." Ross sits under the tree, among the packages, on the "Bench of Importance." He is there to remind us, not to be naughty, by trying to figure out what might be in the wrapped up boxes and bags under the tree. I guess you could say Alan and I have a firm grasp on the silliness of the season, as well as an appreciation for it's deep significance. :) Our's is a happy house.

-OndineMonet
Berkeley, California
December 12, 2006