We’ve got almost all of our Christmas shopping done, and it feels good to have got it sorted on the early side this year. Usually I do like to have it all taken care of before Thanksgiving–some years I’ve managed it even before Halloween–but the past couple of years, when I was in school and traveling a lot, I let it go right up to the last minute. As usual, we spent more than we had budgeted for on the kids, but I think they’ll be especially happy with their gifts this year.

As the years go by, I’m less and less of a Christmas person. It’s all just too much of everything, and my heart’s not really in it. I think I put on a good show for the kids, though, which is the most important thing for me these days. Apart from a couple years of trying in my teens, I’ve never been a Christian, so the holiday has never been meaningful to me in that sense, and I’m on a completely different plane, religiously speaking, from my family (who, being Swedes, are all just about as non-religious as people can be). In a perfect world, I’d live closer to a community that I could share religious celebrations with, but I don’t see that happening any time soon, if ever.

As far as holidays go, Thanksgiving is, and always has been, my favorite. It’s completely devoid of any of the pressures of this religion or that, and there’s no pressure for it to mean anything more or less to any person than it does. A professor I had during my undergrad days used to say something to the effect that Thanksgiving was the most American of holidays, not only because of its history, but also because it’s observed by the vast majority of Americans in the exact same way, regardless of religion, ethnic background, or other factors than tend to color people’s holiday celebrations. There are minor variations, to be sure, but it is mostly the same everywhere, and I love that.

This year I think we’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner at our house again. The past couple of years we haven’t been able to rent the locale that we’d been using for a while, so our house is as good a place as any. We’ll be having the traditional dinner, with our usual company of Olof’s parents, Lydia’s best friend, and my American friend, Debbie, her husband, and their three kids. Lydia was talking about inviting her boyfriend and another friend, but she’s not happy about it being at our house, so I’m not sure if that will happen. I hope it does, though, because I like it when she’s involved and shares our traditions with the people outside our family who are important to her. Either way, though, it’ll be a full house, and I’m very much looking forward to it.