We'll be having a fairly tradional family Christmas, starting in a couple of hours time, with various family members and three grand-children. It's at my daughter's house, and she has Karaoke, Nintendo Wii, and other games to amuse, so it should be quite active and amusing.
This morning I opened an interesting e.mail from a friend in Mumbai, India, which includes the following passage :-

"Hello people, Happy Christmas.
Christmas in India is an odd occasion, for a start it's warm and sunny and it isn't raining, which is as about as different as can be imagined from Yorkshire where I used to spend Christmas...
Also, this being India, the vast majority of people don't consider Christmas a major holiday, though it is a bank holiday, but that just means that the banks and some government offices are closed...
The local business community does see Christmas as 'an opportunity' with it being a high holy day for the Christians, the Muslims see it is as the arrival of a great prophet and the Hindu community, the majority of it anyway, just love a party...
So the shops are full of Father Christmas cutouts and glittery decorations and, as everywhere else in the world this week, the sound of Jingle Bells rattles out of just about every shop doorway.
Of course some people do rather miss the point, one full page ad in the paper last week said, in 72 point bold type, 'Why not Welcome the Lord with a new TV this year".
Last night we went to 'Midnight Mass' which, like Midnight Mass everywhere, was an opportunity for the clergy to tell people not to party too hard and give to charity.
This was undermined by a set of rather aggressive beggars being shooed away a bit too enthusiastically by the cops who'd been posted outside the church 'in case of trouble'.
'Trouble' in this case being the possibility of the local Hindu politicians arranging some sort of 'spontaneously demonstration' against what they refer to as 'the new and aggressive Christian influence', although the church we were in was over four hundred years old...
Earlier this year they objected to St Valentines Day parties as 'an alien influence trying to seduce our youth', went out on February 14th looking for parties to spoil and promptly trashed a perfectly respectable Parsee wedding by mistake, so the cops weren't taking any chances and were out in force.
We've dragged things like mince pies and Christmas pudding half-way around the world this year but everywhere is open we went out for breakfast.
I'm sitting in the study typing and listening to Liz and Zilla cooking and the Christmas Carols echoing up and down the central atrium of the block of flats, and staying well out of the way.
Somehow it doesn't feel like Christmas. The shops are all open, the traffic roars by as usual and...Best of all...It's warm and sunny..."

I've mailed him back, telling him 'he ought to take up professional travel writing'!
My wife arrived home last Wednesday, from Qatar, where she'd spent three weeks facepainting at the Asian Games. Unusually Qatar had very wet weather much of the time (climate change?), and many roads became flooded. All over Doha, the capital city, shops, arcades, hotels, etc were decorated for Christmas, in spite of this being a devoutly Muslim country!
It really makes me angry, when I hear so much about local government, major companies, and even charities in UK banning any display of Christmas - "In case it might offend Ethnic minorities". The fact that so-called ethnic minority organisations and individuals constantly tell these idiots that they aren't the least bit offended, and actually enjoy the celebrations too, is rarely considered by the 'Political correctness Barons'!
Finally, spare a thought for the people of Iraq, Palestine, Darfur, and other places where Christmas used to be openly celebrated and enjoyed, but has now disappeared because of politics and war.

Well Christmas Day is almost over here in Sydney (10 minutes to go). Our family had the usual get together, amazingly we didn`t discuss politics this year, the kids loved the party and the gifts, the weather wasn`t a typical Christmas Day 35 degree scorcher here and there wasn`t any ash floating down onto our food ( and we actually had hot food this year, but of course with the traditional pavlova as dessert)!

Merry Christmas to all at Funtrivia and hoping that all here that have lost ones and suffered from illness in 2006 have a better year in 2007.

Things started here at around 7:30 a.m. EST with a phone call from Afghanistan - my DH called to say Merry Christmas and to see how our day was here in NY. His weather is much like ours, rainy and very cold; almost cold enough to snow for him. He was able to be on the phone to speak with our son while he opened his gifts - which is the next best thing to being here. Soon I'll start cooking but for now I'm here to wish all my Funtrivia friends around the globe Happy Holidays. Best to all - Tracey/BurgGurl

BurgGurl your post really brough home to me how lucky we are to have been able to see everyone in our two familes.
I can only imagine how alone you and your son must feel at this time of year. You have my admiration, and my wish that your husband comes home safely and soon.

Thank for your kind words. It's all going to be over soon, in just about two months he'll be home with us. I know we'll all be breathing easier then, but for now we are happy to get our phone calls from him. WE are the lucky ones as we are in the minority - not everyone gets lucky enough to get as many calls as we do. I swear it's about the only thing that gets me through sometimes. I can't imagine having to be a wife of a soldier of wars past. Months between contact... Today's technology really can be a blessing at times like this.