So I’m a few days late with the schedule. I meant to do it sooner, but there never seems to be enough time this during the holiday season.  That made me a bit behind in confirming with everyone their dates, so I held off until now. The theme of the Event is Parents and Christmas. The participants are all all parents – or soon to be parents, some are even grandparents. Those posting are practice different religions, live in many different countries, and run the gamut of orientations. The goal was a diverse group so I could get a wide variety of posts. I think I’ve achieved that mix. Here is the list of everyone participating and the days their …

Memories of a Christmas Past by Lena Grey The Christmas season is a magical time of year, when we allow ourselves to suspend our disbelief and let the spirit of our childhoods reign. It presents us with an excellent opportunity to put aside our differences and come together in peace and harmony.

A PAGAN CHRISTMAS Well, actually it’s called Yule and should really be celebrated on the 21st December, the Winter Solstice. However, I didn’t think it was fair on children to ask them to celebrate their festivities four days early. Children, being the ‘live in the now’ creatures they are, could easily have all their presents on the 21st and still get upset because they don’t have Christmas Presents on the 25th. So, we moved Yule on by a few days. We still celebrate with a ritual on 21st, but so many of the rituals and symbolism have been ‘stolen’ by Christmas it’s really all blurred into one.

Traditions… then and now One of my favorite traditions has been trimming the tree. *laugh* Okay, yes, it’s a pain getting the tree down from the attic, setting it, and so on. When the kids were young, I’d haul it down a day or so after Thanksgiving. They were off for Thanksgiving break and that Saturday we’d get started on the tree. That was *always* the first thing done. And man, I had boxes of ornaments. Ornaments from the very old, the very expensive… to things made by the kids in school. Our tradition was the kids helped me dress the tree—it was naked when it came from the attic, so it was up to us to dress it. That’s …

I’d like to thank Andrew not simply for inviting me to be part of his holiday blogging extravaganza, but mostly for reminding me of one of my most significant holidays ever. It was Thanksgiving, 2002. I spent it with my husband, three-year-old daughter and mother-in-law in Hong Kong, where we went for a week before traveling on to mainland China to adopt our younger daughter. 2002 was actually my second holiday season in Hong Kong, and my husband and his mother had been there before, when his brother was living and working there. He and his girlfriend actually lived on an island about an hour outside of Hong Kong by ferry, called Cheung Chau (you can see it from Lantau …

As ‘lil q gets older, she’s understanding more of what goes on around her. Right now Christmas isn’t anything to her, but as witnessed by her getting her classmates to sing happy birthday to her six weeks after her birthday, she obviously has the ability to comprehend holidays and special occasions. I wanted to do something to celebrate the holiday on my site, but rather than put up 25 holiday posts from me, I’ve asked a group of people to contribute something instead. The only common theme for all of these posts will be they all come from parents. Not gay parents or parents of gay children, just parents. They’re will be gay parents, straight parents, parents with gay kids and …

So yeah, I’m a bit behind, but hey, better late than never.  The DC Metro Area M/M Romance Readers met on November 16. Mike was able to come this time so we made it a family outing.  Thanks to Joyfully Jay for being our fearless leader and to Treva Harte of Loose Id Publishing for hosting the event.

I don’t do this a lot, but someone who follows me on twitter asked me to check out his site. Basically he and his co-author are devoting the site to short, positive messages.  The site says it’s aimed at young adults, but I think the message resonates with all ages – after all, we are ALL young at heart, right?  😛 Here’s the site. http://finduinbeautiful.tumblr.com If you check it out, leave Brice and Katy a message. -AQG

As most readers know, Mike and I got married last weekend. Was probably the second best day I can remember – ‘lil q’s birth will be very hard to top. Everything went really smoothly – though I’ll admit to a touch of being grumpy toward the end of getting pictures taken. During the ceremony, just after the clerk asked ‘does anyone know why these two should not marry, speak now. . . .’ my 2 year old cousin decided to yell “NO!” to her mother. Fortunately, the clerk said a two year old’s objection doesn’t count. ‘lil q also felt the need to be more involved. Just as we started, she marched over, grabbed her diaper bag from her grandmother, marched …

As many readers know, I’m about to get married. Today. Yes after almost 19 years, Mike and I are going to make it official. As my friend Larry Benjamin said to me yesterday – ‘we’ve come a long way.’ Sure there is more to do, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t achieved anything. When Maryland agree to recognize all lawful marriages – including same sex marriages – from other states, we effectively had marriage equality in Maryland, Mike and I made a conscious decision not to take advantage of the ruling, preferring to wait until we could get married in the state where we lived. Perhaps it was silly, but it made today that much more special knowing that the …