Birthmas

This year marked the beginning of a trend which I often feared as a child: the gradual integration of my birthday into the general Christmas celebrations, evidenced primarily by the marked decrease in present income. Now, that's not to say I didn't get a whole lotta swag this year, or that there was necessarily the aforementioned decrease. But there was one group of family members who did just buy me one gift. And truthfully, I don't mind. In fact, I welcome it with open arms. (I wonder, can you welcome stuff with anything other than open arms? I mean, closed arms doesn't even work. Then it's not very welcome. And an open nose is just asking for pain. Or cocaine, I guess. Anyway.) It's starting to wear on me how materialistic I can be. The fact that I can come up with a wish list on Amazon.com gives me pause enough to wonder if I've got my values lined up completely correctly. I mean, I got a lot of great stuff that I will use and enjoy, but I can't help thinking about people worldwide with distended bellies and little/no access to clean water. But for the moment, I must put all such worries aside, because if I didn't, I would be causing myself a great deal of cognitive dissonance when I proclaim that

I got a talking Napoleon Dynamite pen! And Pink Floyd albums! And The Adventures of Pete & Pete on DVD! And a League of Gentlemen scripts book!

*Ahem* Now that that's out of the way, seriously, there's people starving out there. Please, even if you don't give a rip about Christmas, donate some money to people who are doing something to counteract that. I don't care how much. Pennies make dollars.

P.S. Okay, we've got inflatable Santas, snowmen, reindeer, and now the Grinch. When can I get my inflatable Jesus lawn ornament?