Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Christmas and Such

Smoking Hot Roommate has delayed, at least until tomorrow, her guest posting. Ally did succeed in getting her to comment, though, so we are on the right track.

Work is super busy, so I don’t really have a lot to comment on today, but I do like to write everyday, so I figured I would check in anyway. And one "small world" story.

After I got home last night I had a couple of hours worth of work to do, so when SHR asked me if I wanted to go with her and some people to watch the football game and eat chicken wings, I said "Sure". I figured it would be good to get out and focus on something other than spreadsheets.

[Note: I am at the point where I feel ok leaving Munchkin by herself for a little bit…especially if we are really close by.]

The Bears were playing, which is good because it is the only team I can even pretend to care about. There were some really loud and excited Bears fans, so I figured I would go and see if any of them had Chicago roots. Turns out that they all did, and one of them knows BFF(boy) because he worked at a place where BFFb was a summer intern three years ago.

That is kind of the whole story, which I guess is not terribly exciting…lol. But I thought it was pretty funny.

One other thing, I was eating breakfast this morning in someone else’s office and chatting with a lawyer and a banker that we are working with. The subject of the "War on Christmas" came up. Both of them are Jewish, and both didn’t understand the drama over Christmas symbolism. They both had Christmas trees in their houses growing up, and were under the impression that a lot of Jews do that to get into the mood of the season.

I thought that was interesting…can we get confirmation of that from anyone else? I never really knew any Jewish people until I moved to Boston, and am kind of fascinated by American Jewish culture (like the parts about how virtually all American Jews live in either Los Angeles, Florida or the Northeast Corridor. Or how, for the Boston folks, the old-money Newton Jews look down dramatically on the new-money Sharon Jews…is this true, too?)

Anyway, I am kind of rambling now, but sometimes I get…um…rambly…

3 comments:

Ally said...

I find Jewish culture very interesting too. My aunt was married to a Jewish man for about 15 years, and his parents wouldn't have dreamed of having a Christmas tree. They leaned more toward Orthodox Judaism though and told my cousins that they couldn't eat bacon, ham, etc.

The only other Jewish person I know well doesn't have a Christmas tree or a menorah.

Christmas trees do seem pretty secular to me and as far as I know, they have no religious meaning. I guess I think of a nativity scene as being more religious whereas a lot of people who have trees aren't really celebrating the birth of Christ. Hmm...now who is rambly?

anne said...

We never had a tree. While it is secular and cultural at this point, it was still tied to the celebration of Christmas (and hence not our religion). We partook in viewing others lights, enjoying the decorations, the idea of holiday cheer, attended gift exchanges and made cookies. But nothing more. I grew in a very Jewish neighborhood (in Florida) and had mostly Jewish friends. No one had trees.

ella said...

I know several Jewish families that have Christmas Trees (or Hannukah Bushes). The tree started off as a pagan symbol, so even though it's associated with Christmas, it's not symbolic of Christ's birth or anything.