I started the Christmas celebration with Amy, Matt and Cam at a Christmas Eve dinner at my mother-in-laws, Janet and her husband John. On the way I was talking on the phone to my friend Angad in Dubai who is Hindu and whose wife is Jewish. He said that as a good Hinju family they were preparing a big Christmas lunch for all their friends, all of whom are Muslims. Later we went to a traditional mid…night mass for lots of wonderful hymns, incense and ceremony. Flooded me with the warmth of my family traditions and midnight masses with both my parents when they were alive. Spoke on the speaker phone with my daughter Kirsty and the grandkids Ellana and Ellis in Australia, missing them terribly at Christmas. On the 25th we had a brunch with Janet and John and Amy’s sister Kim and her husband Dwayne then headed over to meet with close friends Ann and Dan at the home of Ann’s parents (Bernie and Sally) for the sixth night of Hanukkah with wonderful brisket and lots of songs led by their rabbi. It was a wonderful 24 hours and reminded me of the wonderful diversity we live in and how tradition, celebration of history, the gathering on family and friends over a meal and the love of others is so enduringly and endearingly human and common to us all no matter our ethnicity and religious persuasion.
