So guys, you should be reading this on Christmas weekend, a holiday I didn’t celebrate as a child. Even now, as an adult, I only experience it peripherally through Herman.

Growing up in Cleveland, we always celebrated the Festival of Lights, or Hannukah, which started its 8-day run this past Tuesday evening.

Back in Cleveland, specifically in University Heights/Shaker Heights area, we didn’t see a single house decorated for Christmas because the community was predominantly Jewish. I was raised as a conservative Jew and my parents were raised in the orthodox tradition in Europe, in Germany and Poland. It was not a material oriented holiday, or even especially religious, it was more a tradition and way of life for us. In Hebrew school I did learn about the miracle of lights when the temple light burned for eight days with only one day’s worth of oil.

We also lit candles, sang songs every night and exchanged gifts, but it just wasn’t the commercial excess the holiday seems to have become these days. So I still am somewhat subdued about the whole Christmas thing, even though I now live in a part of the country that is much more Christian oriented.

My best friend Jacques Lorenzo was the one who introduced me to the whole concept of the beauty of the Christmas holiday through some of his favorite Christmas films. One film that stands out for me is “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and Herman got me watching “A Christmas Story,” which is his personal favorite.

Recently, “Home for the Holidays,” has become a personal favorite although that film highlights Thanksgiving more than Christmas, which was also more of a huge holiday in our family. I remember Mom hosting a gathering of thirty-plus people when we got together for Thanksgiving, and it was all family members and all very religious where Yiddish was spoken.

When I lived with Jacques in New York City in the 1980s, I remember going down to the Hudson River tree lot and Jacques lugging home a tree that was a struggle for his sleight frame. Sometimes I and one of his boyfriends would have to help him get the tree home.  My input was decorating the tree with white cloth bows and red velvet bows, but the whole experience was all brand new to me and it wasn’t my tradition at all, but I was happy to celebrate his tradition as he was happy to celebrate my Jewish traditions.

I haven’t had a tree in my home since Jacques sadly passed away some years back and have no interest in having one today. I’m happy to say Herman feels the same. The only holiday decorations we hang are the cards we get from friends and family that help us remember what the holidays are all about.

So whatever your personal traditions, I hope family and friends are gathered around to help you celebrate and remember what any holiday is really about, those close to us that we care about.

I was talking to Herman the other night-campaign stories about my acting days. It was the 4th of July weekend and when the 5th came I was telling Herman about an acting school friend of mine who was born on July 5.

He said the 5th of July as his birthday would stick in everyone’s memory who met him because he always introduced himself as “Hi, I’m Ivan and I was born on the 5th of July, the day after the 4th. And you’ll never forget my birthday because of it.”

I’ve been racking my brain, but I can’t remember his last name. But I never have forgotten his birthday. This was right after I came to New York City after being on tour with the American Repertory Theater Company and prior to that being in college at Indiana University.

Looking back I can’t remember the others in that class, but Ivan is permanently stuck in my brain. This was my first NYC acting school and was called Theater in Action. My teacher there was Lev Schectman. He was also the founding director and he came to us from Russia. His feet were permanently planted in the Moscow Art Theater where the great Constantin Stanislavski taught. It became known as the Stanislavski System as he was the true father of method acting made famous by Marlon Brando.

At this time I was bartending at Amy’s Pub which was located in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen on the corner of 8th Avenue and 56th Street. I now understand it is an upscale yuppie neighborhood.

I had only been touring with the ART (American Repertory Theater) Reach traveling ensemble and had done some high school drama before coming to New York. But as far as training as an actress, this was my first formal study and was rooted in method acting.

It’s funny what I do and don’t remember about those early days. I specifically remember dating a musician there named Sammy Merendino who played guitar in a band.

It was through Sammy that I met my friend Deborah Goodrich as he was friends with her then boyfriend-also a musician. As I and Sammy fizzled, so did Deborah and her then boyfriend, but Deborah and I remained friends and still stay in contact today via e-mail.

When I first got to New York City I had no place to stay and I was walking along 57th Street with my suitcase when I must have looked lost because Cindy Dutton came up to me at a restaurant and asked if I had a place to stay. When I said no, she took me in.

I later worked with Cindy’s sister Stacey Dutton who has a reality show on cable TV and has been an agent for acts like Bon Jovi. I still keep in touch with Stacey as well. In fact, she recently kept me in the loop as her friend Michael Johns of 2008 American Idol runner-up fame and my personal favorite was putting out his first album as she had access to his studio recordings. She tried to get me some original recordings from his studio but was ultimately unable to. I recently got his album and think its great. So after all these years I still feel like I’m somewhat in the loop.

I met some great people when I first moved to New York and continue to meet great people as I now live in upstate New York.