Day 45. Holiday driving day, but thanks to my app, I’m still able to update.

Before our holiday visiting begins, I’m delighting myself by enjoying some of my favorite Christmas movies, TV shows, and other media. I’d love to hear your favorites too.

1. Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. This is a lovely story about making music with your friends and family, and about how much better things are when we bring our different songs together. Possibly best of all: this YouTube video of outtakes is a scene of Emmet and his mom (played by Frank Oz) waiting 200 or so takes for a drum to roll properly. Oz never breaks character. I’m so disappointed that he was dubbed out of the final version (though I guess the final songs were better without him).

2. A Colbert Family Christmas: the Greatest Gift of All! Still so amazing. And any time you put Elvis Costello and Stephen Colbert together, it’s magic. Shamelessly stealing from my comment on a friend’s post of their duet and my favorite song, “There are Much Worse Things“:

Things that are great about this include, but are not limited to:

-A shout-out to the Santa Claus surveillance state

-Rhyming “Stephen” and “conceive in” with “believe in”

-Elvis Costello’s approach to fake piano playing, which I can only describe as “with gusto”

-A creeping warmth that invades this dispassionate dyspeptic’s heart as she contemplates the possibility of a “one man, four part Christmas carol waiting to be sung”

…and there are much worse things.

3. It’s A Wonderful Life. There are some messed up scenes in this movie, but the darkness and hyperbole of the Pottersville timeline always captures me. You guys! Mary is… *gasp*…an old maid!

4. Last but not least, the “Yes, Virginia” letter. Because there is a Santa Claus. Believe it.

Day 44.

This man.

I might be sitting on my sofa right now listening to “One Last Time.” That feeling overtakes me every now and again. But this man is making so much of the days before he teaches us how to say goodbye.

Let’s review the incidents of his administration – this week.

1. He has pardoned more people and commuted more sentences than any other president since such records have been kept. The commuted sentences (the vast majority) have mainly been drug offenses. The pardons have been for a variety of crimes, but they usually are amount to restoring rights after a person has already served time. He has granted clemency to more than his 11 predecessors combined.
2. Congress passed, and he signed, a bill that extended the definition of religious freedom internationally to include atheists. Now atheists can be protected along with religious minorities under the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
3. He has permanently banned drilling throughout most of the Arctic and along the mid- and North-Atlantic coasts. The Continental Outer Shelf Lands Act of 1953 allows him to lease lands three miles from shore for drilling, or to remove unleased lands from disposition for drilling.
4. Today he dismantled the NSEERS program. I’ve written about NSEERS before, and I called the White House to add my support to dismantling the program. I’m so moved today to find out he acted.

Why does this matter that he did this? If the Trump administration wants to set up a Muslim registry, isn’t it still easy? Not so much. Now that the old program has been dismantled, they would have to draft new regulations, submit them for public comment, and go through a regulatory approval process (as detailed in this article). If challenged in court (as they almost certainly would be), they would have to establish that their program does not discriminate based on religion or national origin.

But it also matters because we sent a message, and the message was heard.

It matters because it gives me the spark to keep going.

He told us we were the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Day 43.

It was the shortest, darkest day of the year, and I feel like hibernating.

I’m looking forward to the Christmas and Hanukkah lights ahead. I’m part of a blended family; I grew up celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas both. And this year, because the first night of Hanukkah is also Christmas Eve, I’ll be introducing my in-laws to the Festival of Lights. I’m really looking forward to sharing the story of victory over oppression, of reclaiming our culture, in the face of discrimination.

In addition to sharing the story of Judah Maccabee, saying the blessings over the Hanukkah Candles, playing dreidel, and eating jelly donuts, I’m going to share a couple of Hanukkah stories I picked up at our favorite bookstore.

Oskar and the Eight Blessings is set on another long-ago Christmas Eve/Hanukkah – in 1938, when a boy arrives in New York. He’s been sent by his family to escape Europe after Kristallnacht. He encounters eight people on his journey to meet his aunt, and finds that even in dark times, people can be kind. The book is a lovely story told with gorgeous pictures that give the effect of a black and white movie, and take the reader on a trip from the Battery up to Harlem. And yes, there is a Hamilton reference.

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins tells the story of Jewish folk hero Hershel of Ostropol who outwits a group of goblins that stole Hanukkah from a small town. Hershel is fantastically clever and manages this heroic task without even the benefit of any latkes. This is a brilliantly written and illustrated tale that feels like a classic from the past, even though it’s only a few decades old.

These will be the boys’ first night gifts. And sharing Hanukkah with them, and with the rest of my family, will be mine.

Day 41.

It’s been a long day. I’m reading today. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “My President was Black” for The Atlantic is amazing. It’s been keeping me up late nights reading (I take a while to get through things, as the only time I have to myself to read is right before bed). This video (link to Facebook) is marvelously evocative, and makes me imagine my Bubbie serving a Jell-O mold to President Obama. It makes me think of my Bubbie serving Jell-O (after dinner) to my dad’s college roommates, who are superlative black men she hosted often because she lived so close to my father’s school.

There has been violence all over the world in the last several days. There is violence all over the world every day.

There is violence everywhere, every day.

I know my mission here. The holidays are a bit of a different time of year though. I’m going to be doing different actions. With vacation approaching and with Congress out of session until the new year, I’m going to focus on reading, and writing, and imagining.

I’m going to finish Ta-Nehisi Coates’ piece, and if I’m still awake, I’ll get back into Engines of Liberty.

More tomorrow.

Day 4o.

Heard this on the radio earlier today.

Today I took the kids with me to buy toys and canned goods to donate to those who don’t have as much as we do.

Toys for Tots is a great organization to give to if you want to donate toys.

Feeding America can help you find your local food bank.