Holidays

My wife's family were all brought up Catholic by their mom (her dad didn't really give a shit). After her serious bout with depression, she decides that god doesn't care about her and gives it up. However, they still all insist on doing the xmas and easter thing. So, their tradition was to open presents on xmas eve. One year when my nephew was pretty young (I'll say 4 or younger) they were planning to kick off the whole shebang early so he wouldn't have a late evening melt-down. Fair enough. Then, my b-i-l's wife, who, while I wouldn't say practicing christian, does in fact enter a church a few times a year says, "Hey, can we do it a bit later so I can go to mass?" By my wife's family's reaction you would have thought that she suggested that they don't exchange xmas presents and that they should do something stupid instead, like help the poor that day.

I bring this up because on Sunday we're heading to one of my s-i-l's for easter. Personally, I like to celebrate easter by getting really drunk the night before so that on the blessed day I feel as if I've woken from the dead, but that's a different story. So, we're supposed to head over there at 11am. In this case, the group includes my m-i-l's neighbor who is about my m-i-l's age, is pleasant company and often joins us for such things. So, she asks my m-i-l (and, more importantly, my nephew's mom who will be doing the driving) if they could make it closer to noon so she can....wait for it...attend mass that morning! THE NERVE! Y'know, they do that stuff at SUNRISE. At any rate, my wife's family is less high-strung about these things now, so great controversy was avoided. But, it did allow me to give her some shit about it.

I would be much better with our country's calendar being pushed around by christian holidays if most of the people who are into the holidays practiced the religion. My wife's family members are such fucking hypocrites about it. Each xmas they get all wound up about whose house we'll be at, what to have for dinner, etc. For all they care about the religion, who gives a shit? We should just do it in July when the weather's warmer and give each other presents at the beach. As for tomorrow, I just hope I can watch the last round of the Masters. I'll record it, just in case. Right now, I'm thinking Tim Clark will win. Tiger's too far back and not hitting the ball well and with the wind no one is going to shoot a low score. Besides, Clark's been close too many times not to seal the deal.