<p>Had a lovely Chinese dinner tonight with friends. (Insert Tradition song from Fiddler here…)</p>
<p>(When we got our check…the waitress said “Merry Christmas!”. We had to laugh since there was probably not one Christian in the whole place.)</p>
<p>We are non-practicing atheists here, so we observe whatever traditions we want to- we eat latkes and matzoh ball soups when the opportunity arises, and exchange gifts for Christmas. No tree, though. </p>
<p>We did the Chinese food thing for years but now we live in a part of the country that has the worst Chinese food on the planet. And even the Chinese/Indian places are closed for Christmas. So we just made a nice meal and stayed home. We did eat Chinese on Christmas eve though.</p>
<p>After returning from our SECOND movie of the night, we went over to our neighbors and got to partake in a bit of their holiday tradition: look at all the items in the big pile of “to be returned” Christmas gifts!! My favorite- a mustard yellow button down cable sweater… 3 sizes too big.</p>
<p>And as the holiday winds down, holiday wishes shamelessly stolen from another listserv I am on (where it was considered amusing and not politically incorrect, so here’s hoping…)
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<p>Christmas Eve - had 16 area rabbis, cantors and spouses in to our house for vegetarian dinner; everybody’s schedule was free! Good times.</p>
<p>Christmas Day - since it was Friday, our temple had Shabbat services, then retired to the social hall for a pay-ahead Chinese dinner instead of the usual Oneg cookies. Excellent food; a “foodie” congregant bought a partnership in a Chinese restaurant within the past year. The food is outstanding. Garlic Asparagus and Beef/Eggplant for an Oneg Shabbat? Get outahere. It was great. We all went home with leftovers in little white boxes, too. </p>
<p>Upgrade: no fortune cookies, instead chocolate cheesecake for dessert. </p>
<p>Came home to read my kids’ emails from different cities, reviewing various movies and food from Chinese and Thai restaurants.</p>
<p>My nephew’s birthday is also today (26th), and his parents have always treated it as a completely separate event from Christmas/Channukah, for which I give them a lot of credit. Also, there were many years when he celebrated on his half birthday, so that he did get to have a party and gifts months away from the winter holidays. I loved that!</p>
<p>We had a second out/in night. Decorated the house as a Chinese restaurant (think the Hong Kong in Harvard Square without the Scorpion Bowls) and ordered Chinese food for delivery. My daughter dressed in a robe we brought back from China and provided us with Chingdao beer (relabeled Sam Adams). Unfortunately, we live in the burbs and the restaurant that does delivery is pretty bad. Hopefully the grease/calorie loving teenagers in our family will get rid of the leftovers. Then we watched Up on Video on Demand, which was surprisingly well done (somehow I am surprised by the high quality of Pixar films).</p>
<p>jym626, I loved the politically correct wishes. And, I’m eager to see Up in the Air as I spend a lot of my life in the air and have flow enough to be Platinum for life on American Airlines (the featured airline) but don’t get accorded the privileges that George Clooney gets. My wife came to London and Paris with me in October – Paris was for our anniversary, London for one day to visit relatives and then I stayed on for work – and she was impressed at how different the travel experience is for me (lounges at the airports where people sometimes remember me, upgrade to suite at a fancy hotel in Paris, the extremely warm greeting from the pretty young woman who works at the desk at the hotel I often stay at in London (could be a little awkward but I’m faithful) who had cheerfully upgraded our room, business class seats with electrical outlets for plugging in computers plus Video on Demand). Much calmer and less tension-inducing than our flight en famille the next month on AirTran to Baltimore for Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>This is great thread!! If I lived near P3Ts, I’d definitely rejoin her shul/synagogue/temple (don’t want to offfend jym’s ‘friends’).</p>
<p>I like the half-birthday celebration. I think its also good to define a day in early june for people born in middle of summer (day of first labor pains?) Annual end of school party?</p>
<p>After the movie, Its Complicated, in which Meryl Streep absolutely glowed throughout and made middle aged women look fantastic, and Alec Baldwin still looked sexy with all those extra pounds proudly displayed, went to a party with teachers. I went out of curtesy to the host, still fighting a cold/flu, but the conversation so sparkling 4 hours flew by!! (Nice that 10 minutes devoted to my DS; his K-garten teacher there, his elem math teacher there, and a HS math teacher there, who remembers my S from discussions at faculty meetings).</p>
<p>All in all, a very nice day.</p>
<p>Here’s hoping my S and the other kids manage to fly safely this weekend, and visits home go well.</p>
<p>Another traditional observer here–saw Sherlock Holmes, which I was VERY disappointed by, and headed to a mobbed-with-Jews Chinese restaurant, where our party of 8 was immediately seated because we (read: ME!) had thought to make a reservation. We were with good friends, with all but one of our kids, so a great time was had by all!</p>
<p>jym:</p>
<p>Thanks from a non-Jewish liberal for the holiday wishes. They’re so funny!</p>
<p>There was an article in out local paper today about a group of Jewish adults spend their Christmas volunteering at the hospital .
One year , my husband and I had Christmas alone and did go to the movies in the evening , but I found it sort of depressing…not a favorite in the history of Christmases we have shared in 14 yrs.</p>
<p>lje-
There has been a program in our city called “The Pinch Hitters” for many years. Jewish folks fill in for nor emergency hospital staff positions. They have had this program for many years. Now it involves fairly comprehensive screening, flu shots, current innoculations etc. Can’t just sign up and show up. It is a great program-- allows many who would otherwise not get to spend the holiday with their family to do so.</p>
<p>My son and I didn’t eat Chinese food (which he’s not crazy about), but we did go see a movie (as we do every Christmas) – this year, it was Up in the Air, which we both thought was great.</p>
<p>In New York and northern New Jersey, movie theaters are always crowded on Christmas day. And it isn’t only Jewish people who go.</p>
<p>
True, but we found it basically empty for matinees - it’s mostly people who don’t celebrate Christmas. Evening shows - everyone shows up!</p>
<p>After the movie, Its Complicated, in which Meryl Streep absolutely glowed throughout and made middle aged women look fantastic,</p>
<p>It didn’t make me want to go see the movie ( I would rather see Steve Martin live in New Orleans next spring 
), but this observation made me laugh.</p>
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</p>
<p>jym: Loved it!! </p>
<p>Well, we survived the “holiday”. Next year: Chinese food! (Oh, and since we live in LA, Chinese food is mandatory for all award shows.)</p>
<p>As for Nancy Meyer’s movies, It’s Complicated was enjoyable. The only thing that I didn’t get: WHY DID THAT HOUSE NEED A REMODEL? And I say this coming from the land of constant contractors and lawsuits.</p>
<p>
where is this?? We have this issue here as well. Apologies to any of you who are contractors, but what a wild and crazy bunch of people!!!</p>
<p>CH4-WNBC interviewed a bunch of people yesterday and last night at various sold-out movie theaters around NYC…while a number interviewed were Jewish, there were, suprisingly, quite a few who were not…</p>
<p>missed our usual movie/Chinese food Christmas on an airplane…</p>
<p>good to hear about “Up in the Air”…may try to see that tonight…</p>
<p>Apparently Jewish American Christmas customs involve show business, public service through medical related activities, family and eating. </p>
<p>“Tradition, tradition” indeed!</p>
<p>I have a new favorite oxymoron.</p>
<p>^^tee hee! </p>
<p>Can we tweak this part, though: I hate paying retail for movie tickets, but I still love the big movie theater experience. What to do??</p>
<p>^^around these parts, Optimum triple play customers get discounted movie tix at certain theaters…since you asked…</p>
<p>…and free movie Tuesdays (but you have to be the first people on the line; sell out very fast)</p>