So Proud Of NHL and My Nephew

Last night, we had our traditional Christmas meal: Chinese food.  First, we ate out at a Chinese buffet.  After engorging ourselves on Chinese food (and sushi!  yay!), we stopped by a CVS that we saw was open on the way to the restaurant.  We walked through the aisles casually shopping.  The store’s manager came over and wished us a Merry Christmas.  Normally, this is where B or I reply "Happy Chanukah" to gently inform the person that we don’t celebrate Christmas.  It’s not that we’re highly offended.  It’s more of a reminder that December isn’t solely Christmas territory.  For whatever reason – full bellies or the nice way he said it – we decided not to respond in our usual manner.

NHL, however, replied: "Happy Chanukah.  We don’t celebrate Christmas.  We celebrate Chanukah."  I was so proud of him at that moment.

Then he proceeded to inform the manager that we were heading home now to light the candles ("Have Chanukah" in NHL’s terminology).  Then he decended into "stream of consciousness talk" where anything that popped into his head came out of his mouth without any regard for other people lacking the references NHL was making.  We were leaving by this point and tried to keep NHL quiet on the way out.  The manager was nice and didn’t seem annoyed by NHL’s ramblings.

After we got home, I called my parents to see how they are doing.  When I told him about the CVS event, he told me about something my nephew did.  Apparently, he told my sister to light a fire in the fireplace just in case Santa came down their chimney.  When I was a kid, I’d do the same thing.  I knew Santa wasn’t real, but just in case he was and just in case he mistook our household for one that celebrated Christmas, I wanted to "inform" him that we didn’t.  I guess I wasn’t one for subtly.

We don’t have a chimney/fireplace in our house, so we won’t be carrying on this tradition at home.  I don’t know if my sister told him the story or if he came up with it on his own.  In either case, I’m so proud of my nephew for carrying on a Christmas tradition.