photo by me

On Wednesday, my brother, Todd, came to town with his wife, Cathy. He has to work his holiday celebrations around his schedule at the fire department so we celebrate when he’s available.

It worked out well enough, actually. My other brother, Shadow, and his family (Jennifer, Willow, and Justice) celebrate Solstice. While Wednesday wasn’t Solstice, it was Solstice eve so it made sense to celebrate on that night.

Solstice Claus visited the house early because he knew (amazing, isn’t he?) that Justice was going in to the hospital for surgery on Solstice. His presents showed up at dinner (because he visited while everyone was out of the house) and Willow got a beautiful digital camera. We decided that we need to go out and shoot some photos very soon. Yay!

Todd and Cathy actually celebrate Christmas and will be going to southern California to celebrate Christmas with her family.

Willow crawled in to my lap at one point during dinner (she needed some extra attention, I think, since her brother was getting a lot of it due to his impending hospital visit). She looks at me and says, “Dawn, what do you celebrate?”

“Saturnalia,” I reply.

“Riggght.” She’s wise. She knows exactly what it is without ever having heard the word. “I think you celebrate Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa!”

She giggles.

My brother wishes me a happy Hanukkah.

What do I celebrate? I don’t really know. I tend to go where invited and celebrate whatever that family is celebrating. Really, though, these days are all just like any other day. They don’t hold any special excitement for me.

I’m not exactly sure what to say when I’m asked what I celebrate. Because I don’t really know.