You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘yule’ tag.
I’ve been doing an awful lot of serious topics lately, so tonight I decided to do something festive and fun! If you’re like the boyfriend, you wait for the last minute to buy gifts, and if you’re still trying to that perfect gift for your poly friends, here are some functional as well as a few non-functional ideas.
A BJ’s Membership: We go through a lot of…well, everything. Stores like BJ’s, Costco, and Sam’s Club were made for the poly household.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 T-shirts: One for each partner!
Utensil Sets: I don’t know where our forks and spoons go…maybe the kids have started eating those, too.
Hula Hoops: Three kids. One hula hoop. Watch the hilarity ensue…for hours.
His and Hers Towel Sets…in bulk: His and hers and hers and hers and his and his…..you get the idea.
Storage…of any kind: We like leftovers. We really like leftovers, because cooking 3 meals a day for that many people takes forever. We have lunches to pack, and there are never enough places to put the freshly cut veggies or newly shredded cheese I want to use later. In addition, we have boxes of orphaned crayons and art supplies, books, socks, camping gear, and outdoor equipment that would run the place if we weren’t obsessively organized. Believe me, it’s happened. My OCD won’t have it! We love bins, totes, and those neat canvas drawers. If you’re not sure, The Container Store sells gift cards.
Picture frames: Have you met my girlfriend?
The Trojan Variety Pack: Just sayin’.
Band-Aids…first aid kits in general: Boys will be boys, and girls will continue to beat them up. Bumps, scrapes, burns, cuts, and all sorts of freak injuries happen in our family. Maybe we’re more accident prone than most households, or maybe it is some odd side effect of being poly. Our kids love the fun Band-Aids with everything from Angry Birds to Shrek on them.
P-touch labeler: Never have to hear anyone fight about whose anything is again!
Pasta boat: Good for singles, good for families. You can prepare tons of pasta quickly in a pasta boat. Pasta boat. http://www.pastaboat.com
Family passes to the zoo (or local waterpark as the boyfriend suggested): Usually these come with multiple passes, and you don’t actually have to be related to be on a family pass. Way to go, Dorney Park, for being alternative family friendly!
Toiletry kits: For all the non-live ins!
Netflix: Whether it’s obscure foreign films, 80′s cartoons, or Troll Hunter, there’s something for everyone. Hopefully they have enough computers or TV’s to stream them on…or you may also need to provide dice, duct tape, and more Band-Aids.
Magnetic Poetry: You’ll be surprised what your partners…and kids…will make your fridge door say to the world. Or, maybe you won’t.
Pillow pets: Because sometimes you just need a puppy pile on the floor.
Giant mixing bowls: If you cook like Hubby you cook for a small army, and our family happens to eat like a small army. These bowls are lifesavers…I’m talking stick-your-head-in-em sized bowls. As it has been pointed out, they also make excellent helmets, drums, and baby doll beds.
Finally, I hate to admit it, but…
Those giant cans full of popcorn: My family can’t keep their hands out of these things! Just don’t let your 3 year old shake the can. Then it’s a surprising collage of flavours every time.
There you have it, friends, everything you need to shop for the polys in your life. Happy Holidays, and happy hunting! You’ve got 10 days!
Aloha!
Go now, be merry.
It’s that time of year again. Well, it’s several “that time of year”s again, but I mean one in particular. As witches, it is our 15 minutes of fame. Suddenly, we’re everywhere. We’re in movies, cartoons, the costume aisle at Target (what exactly is a Future Witch anyway?), and all sorts of mass media. The History Channel starts running documentaries about everything from the Salem Witch Trials to the rituals of the Knights Templar. For a couple of weeks no one has any problems with us. Now, I realize that’s a grave simplification, and there are still people who make their displeasure with the pagan community known, but for a short time every year we are a flamboyant commercial cliché. In a few months we will see the same thing as Christians everywhere fight their own “Jesus is the reason for the season” battle, even going as far as the ever more popular image of Santa bowing over the baby in the manger. This image alone is why I write on this particular topic, because it illustrated something poignant about holidays, the innate fact that they are both sacred and secular in nature does not have to be a negative thing.
There seems to be a belief that Jesus Christmas and Santa Christmas cannot coexist. I believe that they can, and do, as two separate pieces of a celebration. In some ways the two have become two unique holidays, as some people celebrate one but not the other. I don’t believe it is disrespectful, and I don’t ever believe a day that brings people together in a spirit of joy and hope is wrong. Pagans have been doing it since before it was Christmas, calling it Yule, and we didn’t complain when new holidays with suspicious similarities started cropping up.
All snark aside, there is nothing wrong with secular celebration. As little witches our kids learn to honor their ancestors on Samhain. In time, they will learn the Wheel of the Year and what the sabbats mean. They learn Samhain traditions and correspondences in the same way we know and celebrate them. They learn to respect and revere the holiday as something sacred. They also get to dress up in the costumes of their choice, go trick-or-treating, carve pumpkins, and all the other fun stuff that Halloween brings. In that same vein, Santa will visit our house on Christmas, but we will have had our Yule fire.
It is also important to note that when the kids are older they will also know the history of the traditions for both sacred and secular holidays, as one is just as important as the other. We must know about our history and how our cultures have evolved over time. We must know how people of the past have celebrated and why to really appreciate the seasons now. Yes, we add our modern touches, which are also important, as holidays must grow and evolve with us, but nothing can grow without roots.
There is nothing that says that celebrating a secular holiday takes anything away from the sacred holiday that generally accompanies it. We are complex and beautiful creatures, and it is that multi-dimensional capacity that makes us unique. While the sacred days bring us together in the spirit of faith, the secular days bring us together in the spirit of community no matter what our beliefs are. The more fundamental reason for the season is joining in celebration, no matter what you call it.
So, yes, this weekend I will be partying in costume, handing out candy dressed as the most cliché witch I can muster (don’t judge me, the costumes are all in storage), and honouring my ancestors in both private and group ritual. I will watch the same rerun documentaries on the history channel, and I will giggle every time they use the same outdated clip of some Samhain ritual from the 70s. I will meet with friends and family of all beliefs and traditions, and we will find a few moments of joy and laughter in a time when there is so much negativity and uncertainty flowing about us. This, my friends, is the reason for the season. Well…this and giant bags of candy.
Go now….smell my feet, give me something good to eat…
Aloha
I was going to write a post about Yule, but you can Google “yule” and get the idea pretty quickly. Instead I thought I would relay something that happened to me last weekend. Maybe Hallmark will make a movie about it.
Last week brought more snow than some places had on record. By Saturday night we had close to two feet in our backyard, but my story takes place on Friday. Since Hubby’s accident we have no car, so I have been taking the two-bus trip to the grocery store and back with a wheeled cart and bungee cords. I knew Friday was supposed to be bad. Our weekend Yule ritual had been cancelled, and they were talking about roads being closed all the way to the coast, so I decided to take one last trip to the store for “snowed-in” comfort food. I loaded my reusable shopping bags and my backpack with milk, soda, soup, crackers, and ice cream on special request from our resident invalid. Oh! And a rather risky venture….eggs.
At the register I told the checkout clerk not to worry about bagging my groceries, as I needed to carefully puzzle them into the few bags I had to make sure I could get them on the buses home. A demure little Jewish woman behind me in line asked how far I had to go and marvelled at the adventure it was to simply get groceries home, wishing me luck and dryness on my way. From there I lugged my bags, which had just enough room to not spill over the street, across the parking lot and to the bus stop a block away. I am never sure when these buses show up or if they even run on a set schedule. As many times as I have read the schedules I never seem to get a bus at that time. It was getting colder and colder as the Noreaster approached and darkness fell, but more uncomfortable was the feel of a handful of reusable grocery bags cutting into my chaffed, freezing hands. I was tempted several times to leave half of my loot behind and start walking.
Not ten minutes later a car pulled up to the bus stop. Lo and behold, it was the nice Jewish woman with her husband in tow! “Won’t you please let us give you a ride home?” she said as he pushed aside a Teton of books and gifts in the backseat to make a hole for me and my groceries. This wonderful woman whom I had known for all of three minutes in line at Acme was willing to go out of her way to make sure I got home safely and warmly.
We had a very nice conversation on the short trip to my house. I told her about Hubby and his hand, she told me about her daughter and her past as an art student in Philadelphia. I was sad to see them go, and I wish there had been something I could do to tell them just how much it meant to me that they had given me a break and a couple of smiles when I felt i was struggling on my own. I thanked them profusely and wished them a Happy Hanukkah as he helped me out of the car. They waited for me to get to the door and waved as they drove away.
We talk a lot about the world changing for the worse and people forgetting to care for each other, but I will never forget the love that nice couple showed me that night. It was probably one of the best gifts I received this year. A kind gesture.
What Say You?