Holiday

Dear Lucia,

Our holiday season is nearly over. Tomorrow, your grandfather and his wife will visit for the weekend. And in a little over a week, your mother will return to her teaching duties. This is the culmination of a little longer than a month's worth of celebrating what people call "the holidays."

Not every one's holiday season matches. Some people celebrate religious holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah. Others celebrate more cultural events such as Kwanzaa or Thanksgiving. Of course, most people celebrate some combination of them all.

We have our own traditions. Our family usually hosts a Thanksgiving celebration we've renamed "Genocide Celebration" where several of our friends visit simply to have one decadent meal, usually featuring a smoked turkey. Around December 25th, we do some sort of secular Christmas celebration with a Polish feast on Christmas Eve. This is your daddy's favorite meal of the year. Then, as we did this year, we attended holiday celebrations for St. Nicolas Day, Hanukkah, and the Winter Solstice.

The other component of this season is lots of exposure to family. So far, your Grandma Barb spent a week with us over Christmas; your Pappy and Grannie arrived as she left; and your Aunt Boog drove in on New Year's Day. And, as mentioned before, your Grandpa Tom and his wife Coleen will wrap up the holiday visits. I'm not totally sure why. That's just the way it is. Whatever the reason, it's good for you to know your extended family and to have good relationships with them.

The other part of the holidays is time off. I don't get that much as I have to work on a different schedule than the schools. Your mom, on the other hand, gets nearly a whole month off at this time of yer, meaning that you will have lots of mommy time over the holiday every year, plus your own time off from school. Either way, it's a much slower time for everyone.

Next year's holiday season is ours to travel. I'll have to tell you more about that later. Since it's taken me weeks to finish this letter, I'll just end it there. Later.

Love,
Dad

Tonight, You Sang

Dear Lucia,

Tonight, we took you to your fourth holiday party in a week. Like the good sport you are, you tolerated the noise and being kept up way past your bedtime. In fact, you may have been the hit of this party.

Tonight's party was a Winter Solstice celebration, held by your mother's doula. I'll get into this more later, but many of the Pagan celebrations have been misappropriated by Christians for their own holidays. This is technically the Christian holiday for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. However, Pagans had way better ideas for celebrating this time of year than Christians.

Anyway, during this Solstice party, some bluegrass was played. Party-goers began plucking away at guitars, banjos, a ukulele, and something consisting of a string, bamboo, and a bucket. The music was fun and made everyone feel comfortable and warm.

Your mother was holding you. As she turned you out so that you could see the musicians play, these shrieks came from your mouth. You sang for the first time tonight. Your voice surpassed the cooing that had been going on for weeks to this holler that was heard by all.

I saw this coming, but it finally struck me how wonderful it is. Lucia, I heard your voice and nothing was ever more beautiful to me. I could listen to you sing for the rest of my life...and I probably will.

So, keep singing, shouting, squealing, yelling, or whatever you do that expresses how you feel. I don't ever want to silence your voice. And you shouldn't let anyone silence you. Use your voice, Lucia. Make yourself be heard the way you did tonight.

Love,
Dad