Saturday 9 -- 'Tis the Season

1. Do you enjoy receiving or giving presents more? Giving, most of the time. There are a few exceptions. One is my niece, who at 16 is a fledgling Beatle fan and is burning me a CD of her favorite George Harrison songs. I really look forward to seeing what she comes up with. (I bet there's lots of sitar ... shudder.)

2. What is you favorite holiday film? The Gathering. It's a made-for-TV movie about a rather realistically dysfunctional family who gets together for one last Christmas. It's heartwarming without being sappy, and Ed Asner plays an idealized version of my own father.

3. Have you started or finished your gift shopping? Finished.

4. What does this time of year mean to you? Tradition, family, friends, reflection, and retail.

5. What is your favorite holiday song? Secular: "The River;" religious: "Joy to the World."

6. What do you love about the holiday season? Letting those I care about know how much they mean to me.

7. What do you hate about the holiday season? Crowds make me impatient, but I'm working on that. (The applies more to New Year's -- Every year I travel to celebrate with friends in the Keys and the airports have a tendency to make me frigging nuts!)

8. Do religious ceremonies play a part in your holiday traditions? If yes, how? I attend a midnight candlelight service at my church every Christmas Eve. I have converted to a different religion than the rest of my family, so I go alone. Which is fine. The solitude (if such a thing is possible among a church full of congregants) is important to me because it gives me a chance to really honor the more spiritual side of Christmas.

9. Who will you spend the holidays with? In addition to Christmas Eve with my family, I have a couple other little celebrations that are important to me -- birthday (hers)/Christmas with Kathleen, Christmas/Hannukah with Mindy and her family, and ringing in the New Year with my friends in Key West.

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