My grandmother’s grandfather got off the boat from Italy, settled in Pittsburgh, and pretty much never went anywhere else. Neither did most of his descendants. So even though “Baxendell” is about the least Italian name you’ll hear, and even though I look less Italian than almost anyone you know, it’s the Italian part of my family that I grew up around, and it’s their traditions I associate most with holidays.

So I was delighted to see in my Daily Candy email this morning that Dino in Cleveland Park will be offering a traditional, family-style Feast of Seven Fishes this weekend.

Christmas Eve used to be a day of fasting in the Catholic tradition, and no meat could be eaten. With Italy being a big ol’ peninsula with lots of coast, fish was easy to get, so families started making it the centerpiece of their celebratory meal, of course winding up in time for Midnight Mass. The menu varied from village to village and family to family, and of course the tradition carried over to Italian Americans as well. The fasting requirement has been lifted from Christmas Eve, but the feast tradition remains.
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Remember folks, when you are out shopping at Pentagon City Mall this X-Mas season, please only put your baby in a proper receptacle.

You know they only have this sign because there’d been an ‘incident’ in the past…

Maybe they should install similar signs in the Los Angeles Airport
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Photo by DC Metroblogger

This would be a taxi in Old San Juan, the capitol of Puerto Rico. Guess how much it is for a ride around their “Zone 1″?

$10. And then it jumps up by $5 at the mystery “zone” lines like in DC.

Its pretty much at least $20 for a Old San Juan to anywhere local trip each way.

The only bonus? Like in DC, longer rides are somewhat cheaper. Across the island is $80 which you can share with as many people that can fit into the van.

photo courtesy of Aimee Mann

If you’re rather listen to media than talk about creating it then you might want to head to the Birchmere tonight or tomorrow for Aimee Mann’s Christmas show. Tickets from the venue are sold out but there’s at least one set up for sale on our local Craigslist. I picked up the album last week and her wonderful voice does a great job on the Xmas standards. In particular I enjoy her take on You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch.

Anyone interested in meeting others who do media stuff online, feel free to come to the Cleveland Park Library at 6:30 tonight. Here are all the details.

Today was slated as the busiest shipping day of the year. You know, you waited until the last minute (me), you started and finished your shopping this weekend (me), and suddenly realized yesterday that anything that needed to get anywhere but Grannies house down the street needed to go to the Post Office today and no later (um, sure, also me).

Thanks to the nice and efficient folks at the Post Office at M and 19th today for awesome service. I did go earlier than I normally would, around 9:30 a.m., but there were already 15 to 20 people in line and I was only in there for 10 minutes not including paying and stamping all my packages.

They had a great system going: staff stationed at the automatic machines to troubleshoot, a staffed stamp station, and friendly and fast staff at every register.

Thanks ladies (yeah, at that point they were all ladies) for a not-so-painful shipping experience on the worst shipping day of the year. Let’s just hope all my peeps get their packages in time!!

Anyone else have either good or nightmare Post Office experiences today?

I am completely amazed by Flickr user Steve Strawn’s gallery of stop action, broken glass photos. The planning, creativity, and perseverance that’s needed to do work like this is hard to find. The lighting in his photos is fantastic and his use of colors (this one titled “Broken Primaries”) really adds the extra pop to push these to the professional level. I would love to see his setup for these and watch the master at work. This makes me want to head over to Ikea to buy a pallet of glassware so I can attempt some shots of my own. Warning, if you try this at home, be sure to wear some protective eyewear!

So there I was, standing in line at Filene’s on Connecticut today, and I swear I must have gotten the trainee cashier. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet and it took so long that by the time I was done my hands were shaking so badly from low blood sugar that I could barely sign the receipt. Usually I do all my holiday shopping online, but I got a late start this year and I’m running out of time to wait for shipping. So what’s a crowd-hating, mall-disdaining, DC-based shopper to do?

Anyone who has been reading Metroblogging DC for any length of time knows about, but might forget, the many fine open-air markets available in and around DC. Excellent for the shopper who needs to pick things up and hold them before deciding as well as the person who can’t stand a big crowd in an enclosed space. In addition to the Holiday market mentioned earlier today, there’s Eastern Market, the Georgetown Flea Market, the Clarendon Antiques Market, etc. I’ve found some terrific photography gifts at such places, and there’s usually an array of other interesting things to be found as well. You never know, you might just be supporting a Metroblogger in the process.

There’s the ever popular White House Christmas Ornament. We mentioned these last year- they’re great for like, grandmas and stuff who are oh-so-proud of their progeny who have moved to Washington. I can just hear my own grandma saying, “Oh, my granddaughter got that for me on her lunch break. She works just near the White House, you know…” Anything that gives Grandma bragging rights at the bridge club is an excellent gift.

And then, of course, you can make your own damn gifts. Photojojo has a great guide on photo-related gifts this year, and of course Flickr has a selection as well, in addition to a huge Creative Commons-licensed pool of images you can use if you’re not a shutterbug. Might I suggest the Metroblogging DC Flickr Pool as a starting point?

As for me, well, I’m still not done, so now I’m looking for your suggestions. What are your favorite less-crowded places to look for gifts locally?

Over the weekend, seven episcopal parishes in northern Virginia voted to split with the Diocese of Virginia over the issue of homosexuality. Specifically, the seven parishes object to the ordination of a gay bishop and the sanctioning of same sex unions. The churches now each face a lengthy legal battle regarding the ownership of the churches’ properties as they belong to the diocese of Virginia. The objection is being couched in terms of “following scripture” instead of the more likely explanation of “we dislike gay people and think they should be stoned.”

The churches will now be aligned with the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, who encourages the jailing of homosexuals, so it’s really not so much about scripture as it is the jailing of those damn gays. Personally, I think the whole thing is no great loss for the Diocese of Virginia, so long as they’re able to get a good agreement of the purchase of the property.

The reactions from the parishioners, both for and against are strong, and full of emotion. One local Episcopal blogger wrote today: “Yes, I’m deliberately avoiding a discussion of the current unpleasantness here on this blog. There are many other sites both conservative and liberal that are more than happy to hash that out, and I’ve even commented on some of them. Just… not here, not today, alright?”

I can certainly understand the reaction. What’s your take?

Apparently we’re expected to set a record high today with temperatures in the mid 70s in some areas. Amazing stuff for the second half of December. If you’re in the downtown area you might want to use this lovely weather as an excuse to wander over to the Downtown Holiday Market set up over on 7th and F near the Verizon center. The other vendors told us yesterday that the biggest problem they’re having is that it’s so popular that people are having trouble keeping up their stock. So (please forgive me for this one – I couldn’t resist) go get it while it’s hot!