afongen

Rather than do gift lists for Christmas this year, my mom had us all do questionnaires. Here is mine.

Three words you would like Christmas to be :

Quiet wintry night

Favorite comfort foods :

Good cheese (say, English cheddars), espresso, Indian food, pizza.

Favorite beverages :

Coffee (Guatemalans. Mmmm…), tea, beer (Summit Winter Ale. Mmmm…), water, tawny port.

If I won the lottery today the first three things I would do :

Pay off mortgage. Go to Quebec. Sleep.

My favorite activity on a rainy day:

Reading, watching the rain.

My hobbies, interests, collections etc.

Reading, watching the rain. Seriously, hobbies? Am I supposed to have hobbies? Other than what I get paid to do? Uh, reclaiming Christianity from the far right, which is damn funny for someone who isn’t Christian. Long walks by the river. Hangin’ with Owen and Kiara. Compulsively reading everything in sight.

Favorite colors :

Most of them.

Favorite reading material

Most anything in sight. Weblogs. Programming magazines. Comics & graphic novels. And strangely, teen fiction (e.g. by Garth Nix).

Favorite simple pleasures:

Owen’s laugh. The hush of falling snow.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to:

Complete questionnaires like these. Read Hebrew.

Clothing sizes:

shirts: XLT, 17 x 34 or thereabouts
pants: 36W x 34L
shoes: 13½ medium, except that no one makes 13½ anymore, so 13 it is.

In the coming year I am facing the following challenges

Sleeping enough.
Grokking Java instead of just knowing it well enough to get by.
Getting more fun time with Kiara and Owen.

If I had it to do over again I would be

Done with the degree.

My dream vacation would be

Doing basically what I do at home, but in Quebec.

Favorite movies :

Hero, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Gattaca, Tai Chi Master.

The 3 gifts I would like to receive this Christmas :

Karen Armstrong’s memoirs. Warm socks. Other books.

If I were to join a CD club I would order the following artists/titles :

I have absolutely no idea.

Things I like but seldom buy for myself :

Wine.

The Christmas rituals I enjoy the most.

Rice pudding. (My mom traditionally makes rice pudding on Christmas morning, topped with heavy cream.)
Sitting up late at night with all the lights off except for the Christmas tree.

I liked doing this. I think we all did. Reading out responses, we all learned something about each other. My mom has us do this in an effort to simplify Christmas, and although I don’t know whether it had that effect this year, it sparked a discussion that means it might just do so in years to come. Kiara’s already starting work on a questionnaire for next year.

Campus Crusade for Christ paid a visit the other day. I’m still trying to calm down. That they told Owen that he’s a sinner is enough to make me scream and punch something. Hard.

Kiara skipped a couple details. The Crusaders gave Owen a bracelet with colored beads: this bead is for God’s love, they said. That’s when is when they said that God loves him more than his mommy and daddy do. This bead stands for sin. That’s when they told him he was a sinner. This bead is for the blood of Christ: “Christ died for us, he died for our sins, isn’t that wonderful?”

You are a sinner. Your mommy and daddy don’t love you as much as you think. Christ died for you. These are not things you say to a two-year-old. It is absolutely not something you say to a stranger’s child when you’re “spreading God’s word.”

Stay the hell away from my son.