"Holiday Complaints'

So I have some complaints about the holidays.

First off, I'm sick of "the holidays". If you need to be so PC and egalitarian, impulsive or w/e... just say Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah (probably spelled wrong, sorry), Happy Kwanzaa and on... otherwise, I think this whole jargon to make people feel better and more included, is stupid and shows laziness and exclusiveness.

Second, if you know me, you know I like to donate w/e. I was at a bookstore today and they have a book drive for "needy kids". I asked an associate if I could purchase a book somewhere else and bring it in for one of the tags that they have for a kid. "No, we'd like to book to be bought here." No shit. yeah...it's all about money, don't try and make things pretty. This is how I'd feel better about buying a book at this store, if you put under your little signs, "Our bookstore will donate $(X)X,XXX in books to the effort, thank you for your participation." Not going to blow my horn about how good I am or w/e, but I think that if you want to participate in helping people, really think about the people and not just the money you're getting out of it.
So, to make another comment about the above, I think it's great that such a large bookstore is participating in the program to give kids books, without this opportunity, many children would get close to nothing for "the holidays"...but yeah, be more sincere, and don't think about the money first.

I don't have a third, but I just wanted to share about two of my kids. One of my sets of twins, (these are 4 year olds), prepared two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. They had a lot of fun and I was so proud of them :) They shared with me the contents of their little shoeboxes with big smiles. I love tickling them :) and I love that they are learning to give at a young age.

Lastly, I just want to end on a note to encourage you to do something for someone, doesn't have to be someone you know, doesn't have to be someone you don't know. You don't have to do it for "the holidays" (Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannakuh [sorry, misspelled again], etc.) - but it sure is a good reason to.

Now I'll step off my soap box into reality...any one want to write a 5 page paper for me? I've got like..2 bucks...