On behalf of a little baitfish that’s not consumed by humans, it was amazing to witness 350-plus fishermen gathered in a Baltimore hotel conference room on Dec. 14. The 15-member Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) had come together to decide, at long last, whether to regulate the annual harvest of Atlantic menhaden. Over 150 people from eight states, including 18 from four Massachusetts fishing organizations, were on hand.

I grew up in a household where no one got better at anything. No one practiced anything. No one started a project, no one finished a project. No one took an instrument, no one played a sport. My father made it clear that we were never to look foolish, which to me translated to don’t try anything new. When I took ballet at seven and came home and complained to my mother that my toes hurt, she said well honey if it hurts, quit. So I quit everything.

When my kids were young and I was in a mother’s support group, the question of telling your children about Santa came up. There were the realists, the delayers and those that didn’t celebrate Christmas anyway.

The realists argued that if you are caught lying to your children about something, perhaps they would never trust you again. The delayers wanted to make that delicious innocent time last as long as possible. And the Hanukkah crowd saw no reason to keep up a story that had nothing to do with them.

Some Jews celebrate Hanukkah and only Hanukkah, and my red-and-green tasseled hat goes off to them. But others of us come from either mixed heritage or mixed messages; we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah with widely divergent measures of each.