Tamales and Tradition: Tani's Christmas Post

Hey, y'all! It's Christmas — a time of tradition, hope, and most important, family. After all, we're celebrating how God joined our human family so that we could all have the hope of being together in Heaven! So, I'm going to make this post about family! Recently, I took to Facebook to ask about various Christmas traditions. Here are some of your answers:

Of the Sentiment and Simplicity of Christmas

Coptic Orthodox Nativity Ikon, courtesy of St. Joseph School for Boys Bookstore

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. —Luke 2:12-14

Every year, sometime after Dad throws the one defective strand of icicle lights into the rubbish bin but before Uncle Jim locks himself in the bathroom in an eggnog-induced stupor, we are inevitably presented with the ambiguous trope known as "the true meaning of Christmas".

The true meaning of Christmas™ is always presented, and occasionally asked, with some sort of deep or emotive tone, as if we do not know the answer already. This, of course, is because Christmas has far deeper societal implications than merely going through the motions of Advent devotions and attending Mass. As I said last year, the trappings of the season make Jesus unavoidable, but we must add that those same trappings serve to confuse the event itself. A Christmas of glamour, not of God, is no Christmas at all.

How To Tell If You Are In An Evelyn Waugh Novel

(With further apologies to The Toast, whose series started it all.)

Waugh is not amused.

Your name is Pennyfeather.

You appear to be floating through life. Hilarious misfortune befalls you and those around you.

A small boy is accidentally shot in the foot by the starting gun at a race. He dies.

You befriend a man with a wooden leg who is not who he says he is.

Your beloved (who is much older and wealthier than you) has gotten you mixed up in the South American flesh trade. You are sent to prison, which is quite an agreeable experience. Your time in solitude there has you feeling the the best you've felt in years.

Your name is Seal.

While visiting Africa to advise an Oxford-educated ruler, you end up running his country, falling madly in love, intriguing, having a court official's throat cut, and going to a cannibal banquet. Also, your pillow talk to your girlfriend about "wanting to eat her up" later turns out to be a poor choice of words.

CAPTION THIS: When Peter Met Andrew

"It's okay, Frank. I won't let anyone know you drank all of the communion wine. We'll just blame Kirill."
(Full story here. Picture c/o: Catholic News Service)

We're back! It's only been... two months, really? Well, fine. Thank you to everyone who participated in our last caption contest. The winner (finally) is...