Dear Diary,
Jake and Elia came with me to get the Christmas tree today, before they drove home to Minneapolis. As usual (our third tree here) there was a guy in an old trailer (maybe 1960’s style) with twenty or so Balsam Firs lined up in the Mount Royal Grocery Store parking lot. They all appeared a little ragged, but we bought the best looking one and secured it to the car roof with twine.
The guy running the place said to make it out to ATF, initials for the farm, and I asked him if he got many Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms jokes. He said yes, along with Automatic Transmission Fluid jokes.
The tree is waiting now for us to decorate it. Like many atheists, we celebrate Christmas and don’t give it a second thought. To us it’s a family and community celebration, less a religious one. We put all the religious Christmas music on the stereo just like real, live Christians do. It’s the music we grew up with.
It might sound strange, but you could say we are atheist Christians in the same way some Jewish people are atheist and Jewish. Oh, and I have no problem saying merry Christmas, yet I also say happy holidays if the mood strikes.
