A Different Kind of Christmas

Unlike past celebrations of Christmas I'm not traveling home to Ville Platte today. Instead, my folks plan to arrive in New Orleans this evening and stay throughout the weekend. My brother and his daughter will join us later in the week. Once they arrive, we plan to take my niece to the Insectarium, the Aquarium, and the Zoo. It should be an action packed weekend and hopefully filled with lots of good meals too. 

I suppose tonight my Jewish influence on the family will send us to a yet to be determined Chinese restaurant and movie prior to the lighting of the fifth Chanukah candle. The other option would be to prepare a meal at home and have my folks over for dinner. Either way, I'm looking forward to it and the next few days. 

Right now I'm headed to the Bridge House, a substance abuse center for the poor in New Orleans, to assist in handing out Christmas meals to the homeless. In my opinion, that's the spirit of Christmas and it is certainly the spirit of being a Jew.