This indeed a stressful time of year for so many Americans, but in the grand scheme of things we have it pretty good. While midnight mass may seem like an inconvenience for many of us, Christians in places like Nigeria, Pakistan or Egypt routinely have horiffic violence visited on them for simply practicing their faith. Some of my relatives have realized how fortunate they have it and instead of gifts, they're asking for donations to various non-profits in their name- including things like microfinance for people in developing nations or a rather unique opportunity to adopt specially trained rats used in detecting and clearing landmines in war-torn countries like Cambodia or Mozambique [don't worry- the rats are reportedly too small to actually set off the mines- NANESB!].
In case you're wondering, the decorating damsel above is from a 1955 Gil Elvgren piece called A Put Up Job. The Minneaplos-based promotional firm of Brown & Bigelow retains the rights to many of Elvgren's works, including a number of Christmas-themed pin ups from both Elvgren and other artists.
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