Merry Christmas!

So I was thinking about some of the reasons why I appreciate my parents, and a few of them revolve around Christmas. Some of these things, I think, have been quite formative in how and why I think about certain things. I was chatting with a friend of mine, and he reminded me of this while we were talking about when/where we were having Christmas dinner this year. Most years for almost as long as I can remember, my folks have always invited people who were not family to eat with us and our family. Certainly, we don't eat all Norman Rockwell style; most of the time, we eat standing around the kitchen island, but that's besides the point. We've had foreign students, recent immigrants and single parents, both Christian and not, sit at various times around our 'table' for Christmas (admittedly also, most of the time, they're exclusively Korean people, but that's also besides the point). I think that is something that I profoundly respect about my folks. Their table has always remained open to people who had nowhere else to go for Christmas. We didn't have a turkey, nor any cranberry sauce this year (sadly), but I think this was the first time that I really saw the diversity around our table. And I think that makes up for any lack of cranberry sauce and turkey... Merry Christmas to you all... I hope you had a lovely one....