Mary: One time this professor said, “Mary Christmas. Where are you? Will you stand up?”—my freshman year—and it was, like, in one of the big 1)auditorium rooms. But, seriously, people ask me that all the time, “What were your parents thinking?” or “Did they know what they were doing?”
　　Mom: No, we didn’t know.
　　Mary: Pretty sure they knew what they were doing. I’ve never minded. They always ask me that. So this one guy I was talking with in this group. He’s like, “Oh,” —like he knew my last name was Christmas—but then he said, “So I knew this girl in college” or “There was this girl in college named Mary Christmas, ’cause I used to find her number in the student 2)directory and 3)prank call her.”
　　Mary: And that was really 4)annoying.
　　Mom: But we knew, when we sent her to kindergarten that we would send her out as Teresa and her nickname was Teesee, because she was such a little tiny girl, I always remember and I said, “Honey, we cannot send her to kindergarten calling her Mary Christmas. That just…it’s not gonna work.”
　　Mary: And they said, “Oh, Mary Christmas,” I just say, “I know, it’s funny.” you know. I just kind of laugh along and say, yeah, especially right now, it’s my season.