1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
Not really. Shovelling the stuff is long work and leaves me short of breath for a short while. I much prefer springtime weather.
2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
Ideally? My mother, father, and both brothers would come over to my house and I would help my mother prepare dinner, trying to pick up some cooking as we went. After dinner, we would play checkers, a game my father always wins, or perhaps try to teach him mancala.
It's a pipe dream because my father has nothing to do with me, and doesn't even know where I live. Oh well. My mother's house is nicer than mine anyway.
3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
Not really. My mother has some, but I don't have much of my own. I do have a Nativity tree. It's a little thing, about a foot high, with 24 drawers (six each on four sides) in its base. Each drawer is numbered and contains one tiny ornament for the tree. On Christmas Day, the angel goes on top. There's also a little garland and tiny battery-operated lights, and there's a windup key in the base. When wound, the tree spins slowly and plays some some (I can't recally which though, argh!). This tree is very special to me -- my late piano teacher gave it to me.
4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
One of my mother's Christmas traditions is charity. This year, she and I are planning to donate goods and money to the psychiatric hospital. Each year's charity is always something that reflects us; when my brothers and I were small, we would buy toys for needy kids about our ages.
5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
More than any material goods for money, I would like my daddy to invite me to Christmas dinner at his parents' house himself. I almost certainly won't get it. He has asked my brothers to come to family reunions in the past year, and to Thanksgiving with his side of the family, but he has not invited me. Even when my youngest brother asked if daddy wanted to talk to me or if they should bring me with, daddy said not to.
What an emotionally painful moment on which to end this entry.