Andrew invited me to participate in his holiday event, providing the theme of family and kids. My mind immediately ran to the myriad of experiences a mother of four has after spending 20+ years “holiday-ing” with her kids. Josh’s first Christmas, when a roomful of twenty adults sat looking at each other from six a.m. until noon because the one-year-old was still asleep and a mother never wakes a sleeping baby. The year PJ (3) and the cat curled up in matching boxes and feel asleep under the tree. The first year Asia (18) brought a male guest to Christmas morning and my husband felt the immediate need to clean all his guns at the kitchen table. The year the dog got tangled in …

Hello everyone! I am so excited to be here today and thanks so much to Andy for inviting me over to his blog! My name is Jay and I run a m/m romance review blog called Joyfully Jay.  In my real life I am a suburban mom of two wonderful girls, ages 10 and 12 1/2.  Yes, we are right on the cusp of having teenagers, and let me tell you, the view is scary from over here!  But they really are fabulous and my husband and I are so lucky to have them in our lives. Andy asked me to share my thoughts about kids and the holidays with you guys.  I love the traditions of the holidays, the …

So I’m a few days late with the schedule. I meant to do it sooner, but there never seems to be enough time this during the holiday season.  That made me a bit behind in confirming with everyone their dates, so I held off until now. The theme of the Event is Parents and Christmas. The participants are all all parents – or soon to be parents, some are even grandparents. Those posting are practice different religions, live in many different countries, and run the gamut of orientations. The goal was a diverse group so I could get a wide variety of posts. I think I’ve achieved that mix. Here is the list of everyone participating and the days their …

Memories of a Christmas Past by Lena Grey The Christmas season is a magical time of year, when we allow ourselves to suspend our disbelief and let the spirit of our childhoods reign. It presents us with an excellent opportunity to put aside our differences and come together in peace and harmony.

A PAGAN CHRISTMAS Well, actually it’s called Yule and should really be celebrated on the 21st December, the Winter Solstice. However, I didn’t think it was fair on children to ask them to celebrate their festivities four days early. Children, being the ‘live in the now’ creatures they are, could easily have all their presents on the 21st and still get upset because they don’t have Christmas Presents on the 25th. So, we moved Yule on by a few days. We still celebrate with a ritual on 21st, but so many of the rituals and symbolism have been ‘stolen’ by Christmas it’s really all blurred into one.

Traditions… then and now One of my favorite traditions has been trimming the tree. *laugh* Okay, yes, it’s a pain getting the tree down from the attic, setting it, and so on. When the kids were young, I’d haul it down a day or so after Thanksgiving. They were off for Thanksgiving break and that Saturday we’d get started on the tree. That was *always* the first thing done. And man, I had boxes of ornaments. Ornaments from the very old, the very expensive… to things made by the kids in school. Our tradition was the kids helped me dress the tree—it was naked when it came from the attic, so it was up to us to dress it. That’s …

I’d like to thank Andrew not simply for inviting me to be part of his holiday blogging extravaganza, but mostly for reminding me of one of my most significant holidays ever. It was Thanksgiving, 2002. I spent it with my husband, three-year-old daughter and mother-in-law in Hong Kong, where we went for a week before traveling on to mainland China to adopt our younger daughter. 2002 was actually my second holiday season in Hong Kong, and my husband and his mother had been there before, when his brother was living and working there. He and his girlfriend actually lived on an island about an hour outside of Hong Kong by ferry, called Cheung Chau (you can see it from Lantau …

As ‘lil q gets older, she’s understanding more of what goes on around her. Right now Christmas isn’t anything to her, but as witnessed by her getting her classmates to sing happy birthday to her six weeks after her birthday, she obviously has the ability to comprehend holidays and special occasions. I wanted to do something to celebrate the holiday on my site, but rather than put up 25 holiday posts from me, I’ve asked a group of people to contribute something instead. The only common theme for all of these posts will be they all come from parents. Not gay parents or parents of gay children, just parents. They’re will be gay parents, straight parents, parents with gay kids and …

Sunday the weather was beautiful, so ‘lil q and I went to the playground.  I’ll add a few videos tomorrow.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so today was the first book festival I attended as an author – remind me when I introduce myself not to use my real name. DOH!  Several other authors who’s book are published by Dreamspinner Press were also there; Shira Anthony, Marguerite Labbe, Ken Murphy and H. B. Pattskyn.