Hey people,

I was wondering if any of you celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas?

If you do, do you have special plans this year?

Here's my answer:  I do celebrate them both.  Yes I have special plans... we always get together with my dad's side of the family and have a huge Thanksgiving Dinner.  For christmas, we buy the children (my little cousins) toys and things... but the grown ups get to pick up which present they want to open.  We have Christmas music going and me personally, I get EVERYONE something and I LOVE to watch them open it.  Usually calendars for grown ups and color books or small toys for the kids.  My newest cousin, Kyle, is too small for little toys but I plan to buy him a toy vehicle.  He's about 2 or 3 now.  I can't wait to see everyone for the holidays. Holidays make me happy.

We are going to have a small dinner on Thanksgiving with our neighbor. Christmas will most likely be a non event as it usually is.


Janet

Quote from: Janet Lynn on November 04, 2009, 09:10:05 PM
We are going to have a small dinner on Thanksgiving with our neighbor. Christmas will most likely be a non event as it usually is.


Janet

Aww no Christmas for you?  If I lived close to you I'd invite you over and we'd have hot chocolate with marshmallows, have dinner, and open presents (keeping in mind that Jesus is the reason for the season).  We give presents because God gave US a present (Jesus).

I hope I don't seem preachy, please forgive me.  If I offend someone who reads this, I'm sorry.  You Have the right to place your opinion on here

God bless you, Janet!!

Being I am pagan and the yule tide season is pagan, the only thing I really celebrate is the beginning of the end of winter and the rebirth of spring.

And please don't take that as a slam towards your faith.  It wasn't meant to be.  But I would take you up on the chocolate and marshmallows. 



Janet

I celebrate thanksgiving every 3 years or so at my aunt's house with a small group of family. I usually volunteer to work the holidays to pick up extra cash and avoid the drama.

I don't really celebrate christmas at all, but I buy a few gifts for my younger cousins since they are still at the age where christmas actually means something. my house is always the humbug house on the block, lol.

I do like getting together with family (at least in 3 year intervals!! lol)  and those are the 2 best excuses.

I just recently came out to most of my family, so holidays might be especially awkward this year. maybe I'll take this year off! lol

Quote from: Janet Lynn on November 04, 2009, 09:21:13 PM
Being I am pagan and the yule tide season is pagan, the only thing I really celebrate is the beginning of the end of winter and the rebirth of spring.

And please don't take that as a slam towards your faith.  It wasn't meant to be.  But I would take you up on the chocolate and marshmallows. 



Janet

Aww it's okay!  I've never met a pagan before.    lol the chocolate and marshmallows are great aren't they?  YUM!

I understand that everyone is different and you can't force a religion on them.     It's all okay, Janet - you're one of my best friends on here   I think the world of you   

May the gods bless you, Sweet Red.

Quote from: beth~chella on November 04, 2009, 09:22:35 PM
I celebrate thanksgiving every 3 years or so at my aunt's house with a small group of family. I usually volunteer to work the holidays to pick up extra cash and avoid the drama.

I don't really celebrate christmas at all, but I buy a few gifts for my younger cousins since they are still at the age where christmas actually means something. my house is always the humbug house on the block, lol.

I do like getting together with family (at least in 3 year intervals!! lol)  and those are the 2 best excuses.

I just recently came out to most of my family, so holidays might be especially awkward this year. maybe I'll take this year off! lol

Humbug house on the block?  lol I've met a few people who don't like to celebrate christmas or thanksgiving because it's such a hassle to get everything together (I have a HUGE family on my dad's side).  Well, for the 3 times you do get together with family, for some reason I have to say this - treasure  moments with your family because no one is promised a tomorrow.

A man at the goodwill told me that,  and I heard it from my uncle Scott (he wrecked and got stuck in the truck ... it flipped him over and over.  But not a scratch on him, he says.  He told me how precious family is and to be there with them as much as possible, because you may wake up and find out one of your family members  passed on in the sleep.  Ya never know!

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Post Merge: November 04, 2009, 11:08:14 PM

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Quote from: Janet Lynn on November 04, 2009, 11:01:59 PM
May the gods bless you, Sweet Red.

Thank you!   You too   

I don't celebrate either one. But I like getting a full week off from teaching in November...it gives me time to catch up before finals week.

I have loved both these holidays for all my life. Thanksgiving took on a new significance when I left home for college, and every year since then it has been an opportunity to be welcomed as family into a different place. This year my sister (one of them) will be visiting me. I'm not sure what we will do, but I'm sure it will be wonderful.

Christmas has been very much the same from year to year in my family, with almost no interruptions, and this year should be no exception. I plan, as usual, to go home to see my parents and my sisters.

Both will be the first time my family gets to see me as Alyssa. Christmas in particular (but Thanksgiving too) has always been a time when  my gender dysphoria peaked. There can be so many gendered aspects, and for me at least, they bring out so much of the positive parts of my life that the ache of GID becomes paticularly piercing. So I am eager to finally get to spend Christmas as myself.

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Janet -- those of us who celebrate Christmas thank the pagans (and pretty much every religion of northern lattitudes that came before) for their celebrations and traditions that, through synchretism, became a part of the Christmas tradition (not to mention many, many other Christian holidays and cultural practices). And I hope that this appropriation can be seen, at least in those who appreciate the legacy and heritage today, as a way to honor certain valuable elements of many cultures, rather than as the oppression that it was for many at the time these elements were incorporated into Christian culture.

I go to my sister's for dinner

But generally, Holidays and my birthday are some of the loneliest days/nights of my life.

I become afraid of myself

Quote from: Arch on November 04, 2009, 11:36:57 PM
I don't celebrate either one. But I like getting a full week off from teaching in November...it gives me time to catch up before finals week.

That's very understandable.  Are you a teacher?  Anyhow, I'm glad to hear you get time off - everyone needs a break - before THEY break

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Post Merge: November 05, 2009, 12:33:44 AM

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Quote from: Virginia Marie on November 04, 2009, 11:58:46 PM
I go to my sister's for dinner

But generally, Holidays and my birthday are some of the loneliest days/nights of my life.

I become afraid of myself

I'm just curious: why and how are you afraid of yourself?  You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

Quote from: Red on November 05, 2009, 12:32:10 AM
That's very understandable.  Are you a teacher?  Anyhow, I'm glad to hear you get time off - everyone needs a break - before THEY break

I'm a teacher at the moment. Probably facing unemployment in December. Time to hit the job search again. So it's a good thing I don't buy Christmas presents, eh?

Quote from: Arch on November 05, 2009, 01:23:45 AM
I'm a teacher at the moment. Probably facing unemployment in December. Time to hit the job search again. So it's a good thing I don't buy Christmas presents, eh?

I suppose so!  I'm so sorry to not having a job in December.  Things in the politcal world, espcially with obama, are passing the most ridulous bills.

If you are a believer of God  and Lord Jesus, maybe some of us can check and see.. the thing is, no one knows what the end times will bring.  Chaos, destruction and then Judgment!  I'm afraid about what I've done, ashamed ot if.  God is strict but HE is a loving God.
I apologise for not staying on topic here.  I'll work on that.  lol My fingers and mind try to do things too fast.

I don't celebrate thanksgiving as I am not American. I celebrate Christmas though however I don't go to church because I am an atheist. So I am basically in it for the presents! 

Jay

Quote from: Jay on November 05, 2009, 02:10:43 AM
I don't celebrate thanksgiving as I am not American. I celebrate Christmas though however I don't go to church because I am an atheist. So I am basically in it for the presents! 

Jay

OH okay!  Just like I never met a pagan, I've never met an atheist.  Hey don't worry about church.. to be honest (the God I believe in) God will destroy churches first because of all their gossip and kicking people out by the way their dressed.

I'm very interested in learning about atheist stuff.  If you can, send me an email or something  and we can  chit chat about it.  BY the way, I added you to my buddy list, hope you didn't mind
Take care buddy!
Red

Red, that's no problem!

I just don't believe in god. That's it buddy nothing more nothing less, just me. I don't think we should all conform to something if we have no actual proof (facts) about a god existing.

Who is your god then? What religion do you practice?

Jay.

Quote from: Jay on November 05, 2009, 04:07:54 AM
Red, that's no problem!

I just don't believe in god. That's it buddy nothing more nothing less, just me. I don't think we should all conform to something if we have no actual proof (facts) about a god existing.

Who is your god then? What religion do you practice?

Jay.

I used to be Baptist growing up, but they kicked me out once I began the 'change'.  Then I went to a presbyterian church and they accepted me for who I was, then they Pastor Cole left and the new Pastor is a woman and she don't do things the way Paster Cole did.  I feel sad that he left us.

Well, the God I worship is the one mentioned in the KJV Bible, who had a son named Jesus, who arrived through a virgin birth.  Back in those days, God spoke more to man than He does now.  He's letting Satan take charge of the world for right now.  But soon this earth will burn and be no more.  At that time, those who are ready for Heaven get to go there and be reunited with loved ones. (Just my opinion, please don't take it all personal).  And God promised to make a new Heaven and new Earth once Satan and his followers are thrown into the lake of fire, ceasing to exist anymore.

But lately I've been thinking that we are in some sort of purgatory right now, and God is weeding out the bad from the good, before he destroys it all.

For those who read this - this is just how I was raised, knowing of God and His son Jesus.  Please don't take offense to it.  It's just my opinion.

My dad always says, "I'd rather believe in God and there not be one in the afterlife, than NOT to believe and there BE a God in the afterlife".

And Jay, I totally understand your point about not having proof that God exists.  If we got ahold of the ORIGINAL ten commandments then we may have proof.  I believe though that the ark of the covenant, where the commandments are, has probably been taken to heaven already.  If I'm not mistaking, anyone who was to even get near the ark of the covenant will die instantly.

Not sure, but that's what I was told.  I have trouble reading the bible for myself so I have a program on my computer where a man reads the whole bible to me, chapter by chapter, all 66 books of the bible.

A lot of people call me a hypocrite but I just ignore it because nobody's perfect and the one judging ME will be judged by God when  Judgement Day comes.

I hope I eexplained myself well enough.

Thank you Jay, for explaining what an atheist is.  I get all religions mixed up sometimes lol

Thanks for explaining that too me Red it was very confusing though! I find all religions confusing so nothing new there!

Jay

Quote from: Jay on November 05, 2009, 07:40:08 AM
Thanks for explaining that too me Red it was very confusing though! I find all religions confusing so nothing new there!

Jay

Hey you're not the only one lol  Sometimes my beliefs confuse me as well, because the KJV bible was written by different men, that's how it contradicts itself - one author puts in his opinion and another slips in his, and it gets confusing.  I appreciate you being open minded about this.  OH Come to think of it i did meet ONE atheist who lived in Canada.  His name was Anatole and he hated kids, so when I mentoined what my nephew done that was funny, he said "I don't care about what your nephew done!  I hate kids and I don't want to be around them!"  He, too, was FTM.  But he was such a grouch that I closed one email account and opened another different one so I could have peace of mind.  He threw a fit on me when I gave someone his website URL, because they lived in Canada too and was interested in 'changing'.  He chewed off my head for that.
I know, of course, that not all atheists are like that.  Anatole was just probably mean to begin with.

I appreciate you writing me, Jay, and I apologize if it confused you.  My mum is so much better at describing things.  But she is the type to try and force her beliefs on you, whereas I will actually listen to the person who has different beliefs. Because I know that everyone has a mind of their own and it's wrong to try to mold people to be what you are (except Gumby and Pokey lol you can mold them *joking*)

Well I'm going to check other messages that I've missed while I slept.  I have an appointment with my sleep doctor at 3:45pm today ... and I know my doctor will say I have a bad "report" card because I didn't use it everyday.  I pushed the wrong button on it once and it now blows out so much air that it fills my lungs and hurts.  And I don't know how to get it to stop, so I have to unplug it.  Crazy thing.

TTYL!

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Post Merge: November 05, 2009, 11:49:13 AM

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Quote from: Jay on November 05, 2009, 07:40:08 AM
Thanks for explaining that too me Red it was very confusing though! I find all religions confusing so nothing new there!

Jay

This is inspirational: