Merry Xmas
2001-12-26 @ 3:28 p.m.
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For years now Christmas has been a moral dilemma for me. Being a non-Christian, it's hard to justify celebrating the birth of Christ. I was raised in a religious household, my father being a Methodist minister. But my experience has led me to rebel against that religion. It's not so much that I don't believe in God or Jesus Christ. The existence of either one doesn't really make much difference to me. If there is a deity, I tend to think of her as more female than male. I also tend to think of "God" as a myth that people made up to help them feel better about life. So my myth might as well be female, since I would feel a lot better about a woman looking after the world than a man.
The bottom line on Christianity is that I've had too many bad experiences with Christians. I won't say that all Christians are hypocrites, because they aren't. But enough of them are to make me want to run as far away from that particular cult as I can.
So what's a nice Wiccan like me doing celebrating Christmas? (I'm not really a good Wiccan either, it's just the best Goddess-based religion I can think of at the moment.) I've tried moving my holiday to Winter Solstice. Badsnake and I have celebrated several Solstices together, opening our presents on December 21st instead of the 25th. I also like to celebrate the Summer Solstice. But it's not the same as Christmas. Everyone has the day off. (I usually have to work on Winter Solstice which has made me tired and cranky some years trying to celebrate the holiday.) Everyone else (in the whole world, it sometimes seems like) is celebrating their winter holiday on Christmas.
This year I finally faced the fact that I truly believe in the heart and soul of Christmas: gift-giving. My favorite thing about Christmas is picking out gifts for the people I love and then watching them open them all at once on Christmas morning. I get anxious and antsy on Christmas Eve, not because I want to open the presents that are under the tree for me, but because I can't wait for my loved ones to see what I've gotten for them.
Gift-giving is much easier to get excited about in my experience than gift-getting, I should add. I've had many disappointed Christmases in which the people who shopped for me, wrapped gifts for me and watched for the glint of pleasure in my eye clearly didn't know me very well. Yesterday morning I commented to my girlfriends that back when I only had one partner Christmas was less fun, because I was less likely to get the things I really wanted (since anything I got from my biological family was usually pretty lame - one partner can only do so much). Now I have three loving, thoughtful women giving me things I both want and need for Christmas, so I can safely look forward to opening my own presents, too.
This year I had quite a remarkable Christmas. The four of us had Champagne and coffee and a marathon gift binge. I got cookbooks, a pasta-maker and shared in the family excitement of a new freezer for all of us. There was a bunch of other wonderful stuff for me under the tree. But most importantly I enjoyed watching people open the fun stuff I was able to find for them. I love my family, and I love doing things for them that make them happy.
After the gift bonanza we went to Waffle House for lunch. It's been ages since I ate at Waffle House and even longer since I had good country ham. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed both.
Christmas dinner was pretty traditional. We had turkey, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade yeast rolls (from a recipe out of one of my new cookbooks) and sweet potato casserole. Did I leave anything out? Well yes, actually I did. I forgot to make the dressing that Sara asked for. And in the great tradition of Christmas sharing, we invited one of our local police officers (one of Sara's co-workers) to join us between his shifts. He ate enough to keep me from needing the freezer before it gets delivered.
The big hit of dinner was the sweet potato casserole. It was from a recipe from The Southern Living Cookbook, appropriately enough. I halved this recipe and it was plenty for the five of us to all have seconds. I think our Officer guest had thirds.
Sweet Potato Casserole
6 med.-size sweet potatoes (mine were three fairly large ones)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp butter or margarine
Cook sweet potatoes in boiling water 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender. Let cool to touch; peel and mash. [I always peel and chop first and then cook and mash. It's easier for me that way.]
Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, and 1/2 cup butter; beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth. [I stir by hand. I've never really enjoyed using an electric mixer. Probably something I got from my grandmother.] Spoon into a lightly greased 12 X 8 X 2 inch baking dish.
Combine brown sugar, pecans, flour, and 2 tbsp butter; sprinkle mixture over casserole. [I just realized we didn't halve this part of the recipe. Oh well, it worked out fine, maybe better that way.] Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.
Jake and I had Riesling with our dinner. Sara had Pinot Noir. Both are good choices with turkey. Sweet potato is one of those things that clashes with most wines, but I thought it was okay with the Riesling. I tried to not include the wine in the same mouthful as the sweet potato casserole, though.
Now I'm going to go get my pasta maker out of its box and see what it looks like. I predict a pasta dinner in our future soon.
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