Christmas Isn't Over Yet!

I was distressed to hear (on the Christian radio station of all places) non-Christmas music on the way to work this morning!

Christmas isn't over! Some Christian traditions haven't even celebrated it yet!

I'm sure you're familliar with the song "the 12 days of Christmas" - well, the first day of Christmas is 12/25! The 12th day is epiphany, January 6th. See this Wikipedia article for more information. Although I have to take this opportunity to complain about the wise men / magi in the nativity scene, because most likely they didn't arrive until he was older. It specifically says in Matthew 2:11: "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him." and then in 2:16 "he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under". See it in context at Bible Gateway.

Anyway, I digress :) Since the holidays (Christmas and New Years) are so nicely a week apart we've generally (well since moving south of the Mason-Dixon line back in 1999) spent one holiday with each side of the family. This year (and this is pretty normal) we spent Christmas with the grandparents J and extended family in Eastern PA, and will be spending New Years with the grandparents C and my brothers and sisters in Western PA (although some of the C family lives closer to the J family, so we can get creative).

Next year, there will be 15 people on the C side if everyone gets together because we have a new neice or nephew on the way - the first time someone on either side of our families has brought a child into the family besides us, so it's nice that the pressure will be on someone else for a bit :)

Anyway, thank goodness for Ipods because I really can't stand it when they play non Christmas music before January 7th.

Put away that valentine's merchandise, it's still Christmas!