11:40 a.m. - 2007-12-22
Winter Solstice
We celebrated Winter Solstice this morning, in lieu of Christmas or any holiday associated with a particular religion.

(I'm not anti-Christmas or anti-religion, we just wanted to create something of our own that's a little less loaded with tradition and commercial culture. This is our second year of doing it this way.)

We brought over a couple of Christmas traditions we used to observe:

1) each person gets a new pair of sweats or pajamas to wear on the holiday
(Husband got a pair of Everlast kickboxing pants. I selected a gigantic floor-length plaid flannel nightgown that looks like something my great-grandma would have worn. Husband noted that it can double as a Halloween costume next year: if I get a bonnet, I can go as a Pioneer Girl.)

2) each person gets a new mug to drink coffee/tea/cocoa out of that day (Husband got some clever little ceramic cup that comes with a matching ceramic lid that flips over to double as a coaster for said mug; I got a new travel mug that is NOT plastic, since I am kind of plastic-phobic and I take coffee to work with me on my commute and my old plastic travel mug still tasted like some awful green apple dishwashing liquid I used several weeks ago.)

We're adding a new tradition starting this year. Or rather, we're formalizing an informal tradition we've sometimes observed in the past: purchasing an expensive, yummy scented candle to burn that day and through the coming year. We selected a Malin+Goetz Cannabis candle this year. (Um, it doesn't really smell like dope. It's mostly earthy and spicy scents, with a little fresh green something thrown in.)

My gifts this year:

1) a pair of polartec socks
2) a PC Pet (speckled pig) to stick on my computer at work
3) a little candle shaped like a Gnome (I love gnomes. I fell in love with the "Gnomes" book as a kid, have Gnome Christmas ornaments on my table-top tree, a Gnome welcome mat by my door. Husband knows me so well!)
4) Kate Bush "Hounds of Love" CD
5) DVD: "The Doom Generation" unrated director's cut (I heart Gregg Araki! Again, Husband knows me so well!)
6) A Poppy Z. Brite book I've been wanting forever and that had long been out of print but was just re-published this year, thank goodness!
7) A perfumery book
8) A super-cute pear green iPod Shuffle to take on my work commute (okay, that one wasn't a surprise and I kicked in a little $$ on that one, since we set limits for how much we would spend on each other and this would have pushed Husband over that limit)

I gave Husband some man beauty goodies, the complete DVD of the TV show "The Job," a Tom Tomorrow anthology (he loves the "This Modern World" comic strip), a warm and fuzzy new bathrobe, and some fingerless wool gloves--two pairs, one to match each of his winter coats.

On a naughty note: I bought myself another perfume yesterday. Thierry Mugler's Eau de Star. It's kind of like my beloved favorite Mugler perfume Angel, with a little bit of something green and oceany like former favorite CKOne mixed in. It's so lovely! And really, I had to buy it, 'cause it was from the department store where all those employees and shoppers got killed here in Omaha a couple weeks ago, and they just reopened and I wanted to show my support. That's a good reason, right? ;-)

(Yeah, I know. I'm only fooling myself. I of course bought it for the most selfish of reasons: I just wanted it really freakin' bad.)

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