MOVING THE ANCIENT BOUNDARIES

Dear Friends,

My family has several Christmas traditions. Some of them are wonderful—like my father reading the Christmas story while we sit by the tree—and some are perfectly dreadful. For instance, on Christmas Day, we cut up hard-boiled eggs and put them into our gravy. (((Gack!))) (((Gack!!))) (((Gack!))) I can’t wrap my head around that one—I mean, don’t you want gravy to be smooth rather than lumpy? Why cram it full of gross egg chunks? Even though half my family agrees with me—and one year we even held a family vote—eggy gravy has continued to stick around. But even worse than eggy gravy is what happens on Christmas Eve. I shudder every time I think about it. My family eats boogers. (((DOUBLE GACK!!!!))) Well, not actual boogers, but they might as well be. We eat oysters.

Let me pause for a moment while I silently gag. I can’t imagine why