How Do You Spell Chunnukkahh?

I am one of six people (out of roughly 40 in my department) working today, with no managerial supervision whatsoever. This does not mean I am not being productive; on the contrary, this month of December has been uber-productive because I have been uber-busy at work, with uber-amounts of hours put in at the office. It has been tremendously fun in that not-so-very way. However, I will take a few minutes and do the blog thing.

These past few days definitely had a different holiday feel to them. Perhaps it has to do with Mike getting himself all engaged and now splitting holiday time between Wisconsin and Ohio. Or maybe it was because the political instigator this year was Jenny and not any of the usual suspects (more on this later). Then again, it could be that I'm not adjusting adequately to everyone around me having little kids. Either which way, it felt like a different kind of Christmas. In no particular order, here are a few snippets:

- One of the best holiday traditions on Molly's side is gossiping about the relatives after the Christmas Eve shindig has ended. This continued.

- Four years ago one of Molly's uncles proclaimed how his faith in the American people had been restored with the re-election of Dubya. It was met with a bit of dissent but the liberal Simmerman siblings are always vastly outnumbered at these gatherings. We don't do the whole 'what are we thankful for' go-around anymore but some of us participate in a white elephant type gift exchange. This year Jenny decided to throw in Obama's The Audacity of Hope which elicited an appropriate amount of disgust (go Jenny!). Unfortunately, that led someone to decree that Obama is for killing babies and I don't take kindly to those who purport that being pro-choice is being pro-abortion. So not the same thing. Conversations escalated, albeit briefly.

- Some of Molly's relatives are oblivious to common courtesy. Example #1: changing your kid's diapers in the middle of the living room floor while people are eating. Thanks, means a lot. Example #2: I stopped eating snack foods once I saw a child pick his nose, grab some chips, eat some of them, then put the rest back in the bowl. Freaking. Gross.

- I've noticed that somehow my side of the family has started treating their pets like children (e.g. Christmas presents for pets, Christmas cards picturing pets). I feel like this should disturb me. And I think it does.

- Politics was a theme at Christmas this year. My cousin Jeff and I exchanged high-level overviews of our (very different) opinions at my family's Christmas. This was nice for two reasons: first, we don't get to see each other nearly as much as we used to growing up, and two, he's someone you can actually have a civilized conversation about politics with. I'm sure it helps that the election is over and done with, but there are just certain types of people you can't carry a conversation with because things get too heated too quickly--thankfully this was not that kind of situation.

- Some people say very different things about the same topic depending on who they are trying to impress. I think I know one of these people and I do not consider it very becoming of said person.

- MoPo and I went and saw Frost/Nixon yesterday afternoon and I liked it very much. During the middle of the movie I whispered to MoPo how I wasn't all that thrilled that Nixon was being painted as a very one-dimensional villain (I like it when movies operate more in shades of gray) but, somehow, I ended up feeling bad for him when Frost got what he wanted out of him. Anyway, if you like dialogue-intense movies I'd highly recommend seeing this one.

Ok, back to work I go.

-KP