Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all readers of this blog – yes, including the trolls. There aren’t many of you anyway, so I cherish you.

I happen to be a Jew who loves Christmas for the fun of it – the camaraderie, the gift exchange, the tree, the holiday spirit, etc. My family intermittently celebrated Christmas when I was young, which meant I was a lucky kid indeed, getting presents on Xmas and Hanukkah.

That didn’t last long, however. My father, who was more Jewish identified than my mother, prevailed in the annual argument about whether we would have a tree (which my mother justified as a pagan ritual) and finally it was only Hanukkah. I have been similarly schizophrenic with my children, but in the long run it is Hanukkah that has also prevailed.

No matter – it’s all holiday spirit and a good thing. Time for us workaholics to take a few days off. Toward that end I’m heading up to Seattle where I’m going to go downhill skiing with my daughter in Snoqualmie. It’s the first time for a while for me, so I plan to go very slow. I have memories of jumping off the top of Mammoth and tumbling about a hundred feet, which don’t inspire recklessness. This may be an outgrowth of being a “certain age,” but I don’t want to come back from vacation on crutches.

Anyway, enjoy.