The bare bones of me at 33 weeks

I am starting to get uncomfortable now, trying to sleep is almost futile, the heartburn doesn't help and is caused by everything. But those are just the negatives. I am stretch mark free, working, not consumed with depression as is what can happen to women on bed rest, I have a supportive husband, family, friends and co-workers, I don't have other more "delicate" issues that can happen to pregnant women (yet, anyway), dotcom and I get to bond in a very special way before birth. All in all, I am very lucky.

I guess this is what they call the fun part?

I am still hanging in there, wishing that I could go outside and enjoy this weather, jump in puddles, wear warm clothes. I suppose, that if the baby comes in January, when it is "real" winter (whatever that means here in Arizona), that I may still get the chance. However, the issue will be to find what I have to wear that will still fit...

I will also have missed the holidays... The stores are often pretty or interestingly gaudy during the holidays... People seem nicer out there too, but, I suppose on the plus side, I am missing horrible traffic jams at malls and such. Shopping just is not the same when you can't feel the items, online you find out that things are out of stock and are backordered and you need to come up with plan b for a present for a loved one. In "real live" shopping, if the item is there, you can usually buy it.

I won't be able to spend my shopping day with Sammie this year either, where we frantically search out a symbol of another religion and its winter festivities... Last year we spent a day looking for menorahs, this year I figured it would have something to do with Kwanzaa or perhaps even wooden shoes for three kings’ day... but most people don't celebrate that, so I don't know if he would be interested. I will, three kings day was my favorite part of the holiday season. I guess we started the custom in Spain, where we put out Spanish wooden shoes (they are not just a Dutch thing) on the evening of the 5th. On the morning of the 6th, we (my brother and I) would wake up to find our wooden shoes filled with candies and little toys. Then it symbolized that the decorations could come down, it was a perfect way to end the holiday season... I forgot that we also coupled it sometimes with the Colombian custom of starting at the first Sunday in advent or around there, probably Thanksgiving in my house... where we have an elaborate crèche scene and we move the three kings a tiny bit closer to the manger scene every day until January 6th, when they reach the manger... well, as the story goes... the three kings (aka the three wise men) came to the manger where they put down their gifts for the baby Jesus and getting back to my original point, I think that this is why children receive gifts on this day in this particular custom. We have yet to incorporate my husbands customs (other than food related ones) into the holidays, but probably more because I haven't experienced them... maybe now with dotcom in our lives we will be able to make it a more multi-cultural event.

Now, as I said before, I try to respect all customs and beliefs, as long as they have humanistic value, respect others, avoid harm, and are respectful (to as great an extent as they can)... but having said that I did grow up mostly in very catholic countries, with rituals that really made an impression on me, but then I was a spiritual child, and loved the Native American stories my father told me, and the Greek mythology my mother read to me, and the Inca myth ancestors the Indians in South America had, and oh so many more that influence me... I was always so touched by what I saw; I saw them all as part of whole, and not separate. So, forgive me if I have said something that disappoints your religious beliefs, but know that I profoundly respect them and will honor you for them, as long as you don't hurt other people because of them.

I like cooperative behavior.

Winter holidays around the world
Winter holidays around the world for kids