A Family Christmas

OK, so I've put this off as long as I could. Time to write about going home for the holidays.
I'll be making my annual pilgrimage to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, just 12 days from today. I'll stay with my family, which means I'll stay with my mom until we have our traditional holiday blow-up, then I'll go and stay with my brother and his wife, sleeping in their children's playroom.

I have a great time with my family every Christmas, even though I don't believe it's spiritually correct to:

• Use a Christmas tree, since that's just a pagan tradition
• Celebrate the birth of Jesus in December, since He was probably born in an entirely different season
• Commercialize the Advent of Jesus

Having made these excellent points, let me just admit that I am the biggest hypocrite and transgressor of these ideals that's ever existed. I'm shameless. My family has to beg me --to no avail, of course-- to stop buying so many gifts. People in the airplanes "tsk, tsk" me, as I schlep into the cabin with rideable toys and 5-foot-long train sets in tow. I kid you not. On more than one occasion, I've even brought live Christmas trees on the plane.

And my hypocrisy has of course multiplied exponentially with the birth of my precious niece and nephew, T.J. (6) and Lily (4). I will deny them nothing. For several years now, our family has fostered the idea that I am:

A.) Mickey Mouse's girlfriend (because I live in Orlando, but what on earth does Minnie Mouse think of this setup?!), and

B.) Close personal friends with Santa Claus. So if the kids are misbehaving, I get on the phone with them and say: "Have you been good? Because Santa and I will be talking later on..." and they instantly change their behavior.

These lies are made all the easier by their living on a tiny island, so all of the toys have to be sent in-- some by Yours Truly. I'd like to say I'm repentant of this obnoxious trail of materialism and deceit, but I can't stop!!! I'm sure I need a 12-Step Program.

Anyway, in case you're wondering, I was raised in St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands. I was born in California, and my family moved to the VI when I was 8 years old. My mother bought and administrated a Montessori school there (in addition to the one she owned in California), and my father was an inter-island airline pilot. It was a very interesting place to grow up. It's beautiful and has tons of history, but some pretty bad things also happened back in the 70s and 80s on the island of St. Croix.

Going "home," as I call it, really isn't going home at all, since I never actually lived on the island of St. John. But since that's where my family has lived for about 20 years, it feels almost as much like home as St. Croix. Well, not really. But it does have the benefit of being a safer and even more picturesque island, and lacks the intense emotional baggage that St. Croix holds for me, so in a way it's better this way.

Anyway, I'll be trying my best to blog while I'm there, although I tend to stay very busy with family functions and spending time with the little ones. But many interesting things always seem to happen there, so I intend to take my blog friends along on a virtual vacation!

Incidentally, the island's hotel rooms fill up with a kajillion Jewish visitors during the weeks just before and after Christmas-- Is anyone in the Jblogosphere going to be in St. John?! If so, I'd love to meet you!