Happy Holidays!

Yes, I'm a "holidays" generalist unless I'm speaking specifically to someone and I know exactly which winter holiday he or she celebrates. And I send holiday greeting cards. I know too many people who celebrate Hanukkah or consider Christmas more of a winter solstice festival than a religious holiday. It's easier to buy a box of cards with a snowman on them and say "Season's Greeting" then get separate cards for every one on my list. Plus, New Year's Day is a holiday. There's plenty of winter holiday to go around.

I'm not offended if someone wishes me "Merry Christmas." I celebrate Christmas. It makes me uncomfortable that strangers in stores assume I celebrate Christmas. (Especially when I'm buying toilet paper, not anything gifty.) Yet I was also "Happy Hanukkah'd" by one of Mike's coworkers recently. I tried to be polite and say "Thank you," and move on to the next person I was saying good-bye to, but the confused look on my face gave me away. She was certain Mike and I celebrated Hanukkah. We never have. I'd like to think that maybe she overheard some people in the office talking about Hanukkah and mistakenly thought Mike was one of those people, not that she just assumed because we have a Jewish last name. You know what happens when you assume things, you know.

Anyway, this year my cards legitimately are holiday cards, not Christmas cards. It would be a miracle if any of them arrived by Christmas, since they're sitting on my coffee table without stamps right now. There's no way they'll make today's mail and they all have to travel far and wide, mostly to the East Coast. They should arrive by New Year's Day. And they'll definitely be in people's mailboxes by Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.