I hate Christamas. Every year its a prolonged torture of sickness and tension with arguments erupting and economic strain putting a heavy burden on my mind... but... at the same time, its also a good opportunity to say to every one: Hello, and I wish you all well.

Yet another year has passed at AD and I'm starting to feel like furniture. Fixed and always just there. Its been an interesting time these last many years and a lot of good debates so for once I shall put aside my worries and belligerence and say: Merry Christmas to one and all!

...or for Vicky; have a wonderful Winter Solstice

Thank you for thinking of me.

(Personal message: Everybody at Barscape misses you.)

It's no secret that I dislike the holiday season intensely. However, I certainly wish to extend the greatest possible happiness to everyone on the planet. (Yes, even to the wicked, in the possibly foolish hope that joy will somehow reduce the evil they do to their fellow creatures.)

I do not have to share the holiday spirit for me to understand that it means a great deal to many people. You all have my very best wishes, and much gratitude for the kindness you have all bestowed upon me.

There are plenty of reasons not to like this time of year. It's freaking nine degrees out there, too cold for even the cats. The shortest day of the year still has not passed, and I miss the sun. Peace on Earth is hard to say this time around, although that has always been a wishful sentiment. Good will toward women isn't mentioned in the traditional lyric. Religion divides more than it harmonizes. Commercialization abounds. Tension builds into emotional explosions, or sits there waiting like a hell hound with patience.

But I do like this season. It's when people wish one another good cheer in the face of the darkest part of the year. People turn up the lights, make special food, decorate with gaudy baubles and those really tacky plastic Santas. It appeals to the kid in me who used to sit for hours near the tree, all the lights out except for the lights of the tree.

We worry that an estranged daughter might show up, and is she off the meth for real? Other than that, it seems pretty well controlled at this stage of life. I'm not even worried about a call from my last remaining brother, the one I can't stand after fifteen minutes. He can call if he wants. Think all my hot buttons have short circuited.

To all the younger members of the board, I wish you good cheer in this season and good luck for the coming year, and assure you all that it does get better with time. Throw in all the Happy Merry whatevers here.

It really comes down to the darkest and coldest part of the year, and how we have been dealing with this since anyone can remember. We try to make it beautiful and sometimes that works. Seems to be working for us, hope it works for you.

What's not to like? I'm home for the holidays! Woo hoo! Not traveling to a new location, not dragging the kiddos through airport terminals from one set of grandparents to the next. If they want to see their grandkids, they can get the plane ticket. This is liberating.

I finished shopping early, baked a dozen pies, cookies, yadda yadda passed them out to neighbors and friends. Sent out the thirty Christmas cards (all with personal inscriptions and anecdotes), wrote the holiday letter and sent that out too. The kid's Christmas plays are over...Now we're fat dumb and happy, and have nothing left to do but enjoy the light show next-door (55 million bulbs scrunched on an eight by eight foot square area of yard are a sight to see) and avoid the malls, post offices, and other such high traffic areas. AND we still have the Santa bribe to moderate the kids' behavior. Ho ho ho.


Happy Holidays, all!

Nadolig llawen to you all (that's Welsh for "Happy Christmas").

I like Christmas rather too much - my belly is expanding at an alarming rate (which, on the plus side, certainly narrows down the priorities for New Year's Resolutions).

This Saturday I'm off to London for more wassailing, then back home to mum's for home cooking (by the bucketload) and indolence for a few days.

I'm getting all the revenge on my kids for everything my own dad did to me during the Christmas holiday. You know, not admitting Santa was a fiction even though I was almost 12, making me crawl down into the passenger-side well space of the car on Christmas Eve for fear that Santa might fly by and see me still awake (I was in tears all the way home), having all three of us (two younger knotheaded brothers) wait for what seemed an eternity on Christmas morning while dad got to check out the loot at his own friggin' snail's pace, and on and on.

I have to tell you Christmas as an adult father is better than I thought. Having a rational, matter-of-fact conversation with my five yr. old son about whether Santa will find out that he got a "yellow" card at school is something I'll remember always.

I love Christmas for these reasons and many more. Topping that list is the opportunity to connect with my neighbors, employees, fellow church congregants, and AD posters to tell them I hope they have a wonderful "whatever" and Happy New Year.

Remember your blessings.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about... people often get the wrong idea. It's NOT about spending all of your money, being stressed, and lambasting religion, etc.

It's a time to remember, if not the rest of the year, to help someone. To remember the good nature of most people. To relish in the idea that life can be showered with love and compassion. Even for those little agnostics and atheists, Christmas in the US can mean something very warm and wonderful. Regardless of how you see Jesus in reference to Religion, most people accept that his teachings would have (and have had in many cases) a positive impact.

Oh- and another note. Religion doesn't divide- some religious people do. Guess that's a little like the guns don't kill people notion. Jesus taught to be temperate, accepting, and loving 100% of the time. We just can't do it with that kind of regularity. So why not at least now? Drop that dollar in the Salvation Army bucket. They need it as much as you do, and probl'y more. Stop to talk to the guy on the train/bus/grocery store line who looks like he needs a kind word. Take whatever material goods you may have to give, and try to give it to someone that might need it more. Remember that there are MANY people in our country that don't have the luxury of heat, much less the glory of a PC and time to debate online. Most importantly, even if your family has problems, and probably more so, take the time to extend a loving hand. Drug problems, personal differences, or just plain meanness can be forgotten with an open heart.

My children are now old enough to be wowed that Christmas is almost here.
My son (4)is overcoming his late speech development and should be ready for school just in time.
My daughter (2) is more beautiful every day and looks like the Precious Moments doll.

I have Gridlock in DC
My brother, whom I haven't seen in 7 years, is visiting this week.
My family is well
My Home is otherwise at least peaceful in an armistice/truce kind of way--cant have everything.

For me Christmas is a time to enjoy Family and the end of a --hopefully-- good year, and wish for a better New Year.

Merry Christmas to my friends here at AD.

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. For many years, it amplified my feeling of being alone, and that was a drag, but as a kid I always loved Christmas - the smell of the tree filling the house, the Christmas lights, the pretty packages, etc. I guess I love it more than I hate it.

For the first time in a very long time, I get to spend Christmas with my nephew. Our celebration will be modest, with toys and treats for the cats and dog, and a few gifts and yummy baked goodies for us 2-legged types. I wish we could sip hot chocolate by the fireplace since it has been so freakin' cold in SoCal lately (I scraped ice off my windshield this morning!), but I guess we'll have to settle for huddling around the portable heater with a cat or two to serve as lap warmers and a splash of Bailey's in the hot chocolate.

I don't do the mall thing, and 'net shopping is a Christmas miracle! Gotta love it.

Merry Christmas and all-inclusive winter holiday greetings to everyone! Peace on Earth seems further away than ever, but there's always hope.

It has happened again, a blizzard in Colorado. We got a couple of feet of odd stuff, the kind that falls fluffy and compacts very quickly into a dense blanket that's difficult to shovel and snowblow, great for skiing, snowshoe treks, kids on cardboard sleds and fairly easy to drive in as opposed to the spring heavyweight slurpy falls. We are promised light puffy falls through to Christmas Day.

It's a White Christmas, a somewhat rare thing for the unpredictable mountain weather this far to the south. Up north it's a sure thing. Around Gunnison people don't see the ground until spring, very much like a Minnesota winter. But here we're almost a desert, and in fact within a couple days' drive there is real desert, an impossible silence where you can hear a lizard scurry a hundred yards away, a landscape that will screw you up just a few steps from the flat, straight, empty road. The rocks all look the same. The parched shrubs all look the same.

But this year it's white. It's beautiful, and the natural snow globe will go on for the season. It's a time like this that reminds me why this is the perfect place to be for us. This is why we work hard to stay here. And this year things have come closer together. I'm back with my old tech team of geeks with humor, working on twice as many systems with less headcount, but we are all good at what we do. We are with a new outfit that seems to have its act together better than what I've seen for -- it's been well over a decade now. Holy Moley!

Yesterday I worked for two hours digging out and took the Jeep to get supplies from the tough clerks who keep things running. No mail was delivered -- you can't get to the mailboxes because the wind made drifts that liked those boxes on sticks. The plows had worked through the night, piling up more snow to the boxes on sticks. How to get your mail?

We have two post offices here, a really nice thing, one square in town and another on the way out. Need that package, those cards, the check? The USPS people will help you out. They know your name.

It's a gift, this kind of snowfall. We must have been good this year.

AM, I saw some beautiful pictures in the Rocky Mountain News of the blizzard (oddly enough, one photo was of a half dozen mailboxes buried in snow). Pretty to look at, but I'm sure it's a pain digging stuff out. My mom and brother are snowed in their house in Broomfield. It sounds to me like a great time to stay inside with a roaring fire in the fireplace, snuggled with a significant other, with a hot beverage nearby.

I remember being in Colorado for Christmas during a blizzard back in the '80's. This southern California girl doesn't do well in the white stuff!

Happy white Christmas!

Ahhh, my favorite time of year. The shopping is (mostly) done, the cooking will happen during the weekend (a real treat for me, to be able to just cook all weekend) and Christmas day will be spend in the company of good friends (there wasn't quite enough time to go home for Christmas this year so the GF and I will have each other for family).

Have a happy Christmas one and all.

And for those who need a bit of glurge with Christmas, here's my favorite of all time....

The Definitive Answer

Christmas is for kids. Bless their greedy little hearts, the little buggers!

I only care about the holidays for the sake of my children. As they grow older and their wish list gets shorter I grow less interested in the whole materialistic deal. I don't need one day to show how much I love and care for my family and friends. Nor do I feel any need for any false feelings of goodness and charity. If you've been a jerk for 11 months of the year, you'll get no love from me in the 12th.

I prefer the part of Christmas where you can give freely to charities and ensure someone has a happy holiday that might not otherwise. We contributed a lot of gently used clothes and toys that we no longer want or need, but may bring comfort and joy to somebody else.

Plus, it's the time of the year when you can hear the best and worst of Christmas music. My best of list starts and ends with Nat King Cole and everything else is just excess.

So from a liberal secular humanist MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And don't forget to say "Happy Birthday, Jesus" or Bill O' Reilly will come and get ya!

December is the fastest moving month of the year. Wasn't Thanksgiving just last week?

I swear I posted somewhere about our holiday traditions but I couldn't find it. We decorate, we bake, and on Christmas eve, we have an online Christmas eve with my mom and siblings. We set up webcams and mics and watch each other open the presents we shipped up earlier in the week. Geek Christmas

Mike and I also make Christmas cookies. This year we made chocolate sprinkles, kaleidoscope cookies, snickerdoodles, candy cane cookies, toffee bars, Jan Hagel, chocolate pinwheels, pecan balls, chocolate chip cookies, choco-caramel delights, peanut butter kisses, and molasses jumbles. We also made triple layer chocolate mints but didn't give them away because they didn't set up right. Still tastes fabulous, so Mike and I have been nibbling off it for two weeks. All in all, I think we gave away 16 plates, weighing about a pound each. Whew!

I used to hate Christmas but since Mike and I have established our own traditions, I've come around. We have found the things we enjoy doing and cut out most of which we don't.

This year, we're to meet up with Doclotus and his wife sometime over this holiday weekend. I'm looking forward to that (and getting to give away more cookies!).

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad, Happy Festivus, Peaceful Solstice...

Merry Christmas !!!

CP

The Christmas Cat

You don't remember last year, do you.
You accuse me with your look,
WHY did you not shovel MY walkways?

But you like me sharing people food,
It's so much better than your usual fare.
And you don't care that
It's been on the floor already.

Christmas is coming and you get it,
Don't you.
Something is different,
Isn't it.

There are bells ringing,
Drums drumming,
Children singing,
Lords a-jumping.

Things move, things sound,
It's different, isn't it.

Maybe it's just that we're in a better mood.
Maybe you've forgiven my neglect,
Not having cleared the entire mountain.
Cats do accept what is, eventually.

It takes you longer than the deer,
Those giant mouse friends of yours,
Who walk these hills unfettered,
And speak your animal tongue.

You miss them, don't you.

You're looking for them in the early morn,
Aren't you.

I didn't shovel your mountain,
And that's just the way it is.
What a pain in the tail.

Now you want to go out again.
I get up from my comfy chair,
The one near the warm space heater,
Open the door and

You jump out into the night like
A great fearless hunter,
The cold black air rushing in,
And no.

I have YET to shovel YOUR walkways.

I used to hate christmas- until I had children. Sometimes, i wonder if there is a god, and if he/she/it gave us children so we can reconnect with our humanity, compassion and joy (not to mention all the negative stuff that comes with them, in this subject LOL) -

I never really enjoyed christmas until I had children- I never appreciated Martin Luthor King until my daughter gave me a new perspective, and no other holiday other than Thanksgiving- which I have always appreciated as a time for the entire family could get together.

This should be one of my worst Christmas-es ever. Divorce. Child custody battle. First time in years I have had to continually worry about finances. Had my first car accident in years yesterday- and the list of "woes" goes on and on for 2006- my "annualis horribilus"- but, it all melts away when my sweet little girl says "what is really important about Christmas is family- I don't need gifts, I have my family"- which, of course- makes papa work 10 times harder to make sure she does get some gifts LOL

But now- I love it- I am totally into it- I spent 3 hours yesterday with my boy playing with my old christmas trains, I set them up in my living room (one nice thing about not having a wife LOL)- and we were able to just be little boys together for a bit- we just played and played- it has snowed feet here, and I moved all the snow via snowblower and brute force, into a very nice ski hill in the back yard, and again, we played for hours and hours.

I celebrate the fact that, in the end, the Pagan's won over the Christians with the establishment of this pagan holiday (much better traditions too IMHO, nice bonfire at night etc) LOL- but, in reality- to me, now, it is an opportunity for my young, small little babies, to teach thier papa how to experiance joy for joy's sake, how to enjoy life like a kid, and revel in thier kisses and hugs for a bit.

makes all the other B.S. worth while!

Merry Christmas, to the fact that you suck as Americans, you dont really care about anyone but yourselves.
Your government waged an illegal war against another country that during THIS HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON, are going to spend without water, electricity, and in the midst of continual bombings and constant strife, and its not the first but a long line.
You can ignore your complicity with cookies and milk, whilst you gain a few pounds on the backs of starving Iraqi's that never, ever did you any harm, as they scramble for food and medical care and the most basic needs.

Fatten yourselves up, spread false good cheer, to your loved ones, because the ones we dont know are really, truly in need , yet, non-existant in your minds.

When has it not been the case? Many American Christmas's have seen other wars on our behalf, while we eat, and eat and eat. Few have been as devastating as this one. None on our own territory for more than a century, surely you forget what it means to go without.

You ARE NOT ONLY gluttonous, but ignorant. Every one of us here who knows the reality of the Iraq war should be ASHAMED.

There is NO JOY, you cannot congradulate yourselves upon a good year, in any way. You have nothing to celebrate. You have war and genocide behind your name, you have only shame to bear this 'holiday'.
When will we truly get serious? When it does not interfere with our cozy lives and happy holidays?

Your Christmas this year is a disgrace and your Happy New Year Worse! More than ever it has nothing to do with Christ, but dont be mistaken that this is a religious rant because it isnt.

You, me, none of us deserve ANY celebrations of ANY kind, because we have done a terrible, horrible thing to millions of people who are suffering everyday.
You know the history, you know Iraqis never did a thing against us, you know as well their current suffering.
You do not give a flying EDITED TO REMOVE ATTEMPT AT BYPASSING PROFANITY FILTER!

So enjoy your Turkey, stuff yourselves on Turkey, its appropriate, till you get even more sleepy than you have been all these years.

Talk about Peace on Earth, for ONE DAY, until you go back to warmongering on December 26th. Wish peace for your family, but not for Palestinian, Afghan or Iraqi families, because they just do not deserve it. Go to Christmas mass, eat the body and blood of Christ that exponges your sins of war, and go out and do it again tomorow.
Celebrate!
What are you celebrating? The deaths of those who do not believe as you do. What a victory!

Im sure this might come as some suprise! You will say, she has surely lost her mind! Of course Ive lost my mind, any SANE person would have lost their mind long ago!

Merry EDITED TO REMOVE ATTEMPT AT BYPASSING PROFANITY FILTER Christmas, to a corrupt, lying, torturing and hypoctritical nation of sheep, that allowed their country to fall and innocents to die because they were too cowed to stand up and notice what was going on, and be accountable for the WAR CRIMES they comitted whilst they danced the night away, at holiday, as others starved to death, were murdered DAY AFTER DAY in their name. Happy New Year! Although I think its really lost on anyone inside the occupied territories.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!

merry christmas, happy holidays, peace be with you.

Someone couldn't get there hands on a playstation3...

To everyone else, Merry Christmas! As i grow older, I realize that this is a holiday about family and i've grown to appreciate it a lot more.

Soooooo....we can put you down as a definite "yes" vote in the "Christmas Sucks" poll?

So I'm selfish, fat, stupid, corrupt, cowardly, ignorant, hypocritcal and pretty much a waste of perfectly good air? Gee, and here I thought we wuz buddies, Artemise.

I understand that you are motivated by anger, fear, passion and frustraton so you are venting that irritation outward on America's Debate on a bunch of strangers.

But let me ask you this my friend? How many checks have you written to the Red Cross or other charitable agencies trying to feed, clothe and aid Iraqis? What about Doctors Without Borders? Have you contributed to Operation Iraqi Children? Where is YOUR goodness and mercy in this hoilday season when you are decrying the lack of it by others.

Anger without committment is nothing but hot air and energy uselessly expended. Have you written a letter to your U.S. Representatives and Senators demanding they cut off funding for the war in Iraq? Have you organized a grass-roots protest, demonstration or boycott? Have you called talk radio programs or sent a e-mail to a newspaper or met with a politician?

Because if you haven't turned your anger into action then you're just as selfish, fat, stupid, corrupt, cowardly, ignorant and hypocritical as the rest of us and the blood being spilled in Iraq is on much on your hands as any of ours.

Maybe only a handful of us work in soup kitchens or hand out blankets to the homeless or bring a old relative home for dinner or put a dollar in the Salvation Army bellringer's pot. But some of us do and a lot of us don't get caught up in a greedy orgy of Playstation III's and blood diamonds. There is nothing wrong with seeing a child's eye light up with delight on a early Christmas morning.

I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase, "Think Globally, Act Locally." Are there people in need in your community? What have you done for them? You don't need to go to Baghdad to find a city in ruins. New Orleans is a lot closer but for all the attention the American public has paid it might as well be on the dark side of the moon.

The world needs anger Artemise. The evils of the world thrive because too often there isn't enough anger. But hating on everyone within spitting distance only makes you look bitter and resentful.

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. (Frederick Buechner)

A simple "Bah! Humbug! would have gotten your point across without taking a giant whiz on Christmas.

Happy Solstice everybody!

... Or Merry Christmas.

Well it's December 25th on 2 time zones and I get a rare moment of solitude in a busy household.

I too have moments of anger like that which Artemise expresses, but in a house with three children under 8 the magic of Christmas comes to life even while it is in the midst of gluttonous commercial consumption.

We may lose the spirit far too quickly but this is a wish for all of us to be a little more saintly or like santa or enlightened for a little longer than normal after being won over by the spirits of Christmas.

I hope we spend the next year worrying less about who says Merry Christmas and more on trying to use our power as individuals to help make peace on earth where we can.

Christmas is about family and I live in a blessed modern family that hasn't disintegrated because of the moral depravation of the 1960s even though we have a history of divorce this means that we have 10 grandparents for our children and a larger extended family to think about this time of year.

In this my 40th year on the planet (actually that probably makes it my 41st) I see my body begin to decline and despair for my family's fiscal future. But I have so much to be thankful for. I am spoiled and like most spoiled people I want more. I want my country to improve even thought I feel very lucky to be an American. I want the world to better take care of those who Jesus of Nazereth worried about the most. I think that if he were a member of America's debate he would forego a party affiliation but would express socialist beliefs more radical than the average American would be comfortable with.

May we all find charity abundant in our hearts in 2007 and beyond and be much wealthier for that charity.

Merry Christmas, Happy holiday season, and soon to come, a happy new year.

Merry Christmas to all my friends at on this snowless Christmas morning!!

I hope the holidays bring everyone cheer and joy!!

Consider yourself fortunate Amlord. Living in Ohio, you have probably seen rather than dream about a White christmas.

I heard on the local news last night that the Fort Worth/Dallas area hasn't had a white Christmas since 1924, though there have been a few instances where patches of residual snow remained on the ground. I have never seen a white Christmas. Today it's sunny, windy and the temperature at this moment is 49 degrees F.

Oh, well, I'll have to listen to Bing Crosby and dream about next year.

Happy Winter Solstice to all.

Don, Mega-bite Cat and Giga-bite Cat.

beautiful sunny 67 degrees here in Arizona, and not a lousy flake of snow ANYWHERE !

I love it, love it. love it!

No shovels, no salt, no parkas.

Christmas is over! Finally. -- I can only do so much socializing! After awhile I just want quiet. it was very fun last night with the lights and dinner. This morning with the kids was so cute!

Irritating that this year nothing is open in the afternoon. Strange 'cause they did big business here last year.
I had to get some gas and while pumping watched a very heavy stream of people pull into walmart and back out when they realized it was actually closed. in my 20 minutes at the station I counted 40 cars. Thats a lot of money they didn't get. Very poor business sense IMO.
I thought with everyone back to work tomorrow they'd be open to suck up some of thet loose christmas money.
Oh well as exasperating as that is, at least it is only 1 day a year. still it's dissapointing though. i expect it in the sticks, not in a city like Phoenix. Not a very successful War on Christmas o'Reilly.

Oh well merry christmas evryone

I do ALL of it (but I dont give to the RC because they are not worthy, but do pay to get certified for things,Cpr, etc), the interesting part is, YOU KNOW I DO because youve known me for years, though Ive never shared my accounts with you one to one, but Im not exactly sure what you are pretending? I have shared with you information on some of my contributions, including Katrina, however I dont really go around posting publicly my donations, and it's noones business. Shall I list on Ad my charities? Shall you? Lets see who does more for women and children? It might end up like Rosie and Trump.




Well isnt THAT calling the kettle black! And a very convenient theory. Strange you never quoted this in the racism threads. Dont EVER complain again about anything in your life, NT, given the above, I just dont want to hear it any longer. But I was not talking about me, or us.
The facts are that we need to look at the hell we are imposing on others, and if that upsets our Christmas cheer, it IS THE TIME to do it. Its the time when hypocrisy reigns, so why not point out the obvious.



WTF do I care about how I 'look' when everyone 'within spitting distance' is complicite in mass murder?
Do you think 'how I look' is a deterrant? Im not the one knowing the Iraq war is and was wrong from beginning to end, yet 'pretending' it wasnt, to protect my mind daily, in order to support the mass psychosis.
Stuff it NT, if you want me to bow down and submit to the idea of accepting or being 'reasonable' about this war, because we are on the edge of the next about Iran. The standards you set for yourself obviously dont apply to others, as you worry about 'how it looks'. Disturbing, very lemming-ish.

I am going to say everything I can, fight everyway I can, to explain to americans that they are gullible and complicite, a bunch of dumbed down sheep, who are soon going to go to war with Iran, because they are so unbelievably stupid and fed a fear that drives them to do really idiotic cowdungbirdpoopjackasscrap, like think we could even win a war with Iran, or try to turn Iraq and the Mid-east into a western democracy.

'Let them eat cake' and 'Dance while Rome burns'.

What you have said to me here is just inane, knowing who I am and completely forgetting who you are. While I may have had a 'seasonal rant' , you have made it a solid philosophy, and for that I am grateful to have understood it beyond just a 'negative moment' in time passing.
Yes, I urinated all over Christmas, boo-hoo on breaking apart the United States of Amnesia and saying other than 'nicey, nice', at our crap loaded Christmas ritual, but someone HAS to do it, enough is enough. We have to End the WAR, that never should have begun, and stop further escalation.
If that happens to come up December 25th-Jan 2 too bad! The killing didn't stop.

But your P fell far short.

The yellow snow is just that, yellow and snow.

For a brief time, some took a break.

You aren't all that powerful.

You rock, AM. Too true.

I say the world would be a much better place if more people always acted like it was the Christmas season, and spread that joy around. A pleasant season of charity, nice sentiments, and giving does a lot more for the world and sends out much more "positive vibrations" than reserving that feeling for only a few seconds of orgasm.

Happy Holidays, everyone. Hope your Christmas was as great as mine was.

Well, its been an unusual christmas this year. I managed to get ill before the actual holiday itself so I was spared the puking, wretching gripes during the high point (though managed to infect most of my family it seems).

In Denmark we celebrate Christmas, or rather Jul (which predates the Christian celebration by a few thousand years or so) on the 24th. This year was the second with my daughter, but given her age, the first where she was able to participate as more than a bemused observer, and to put it bluntly, it was fantastic. Both my parents and my in laws came to celebrate, bringing each family's respective traditonal dishes with them, and no less than three uncles and one aunt where in attendence on my little daughter. As the only member of her generation in my family, she was spoiled rotten and the festivity took a serious hit when it was Freja's bed time. Before that though, she opened a load of presents (and played with the paper) and we all danced arond the xmas tree and sang traditonal Danish Julesang. My GF and I had made confectinary and that was a big hit as well.

Amongst my presents, which were few as I'd told people not to buy me anything, was a mosque alarm clock which wakes you up with a recording of a guy shouting ''Allahu akbar''. My lil brother has a wicked sense of humour and loves to tease me. He also gave me a nice Rammstein T shirt so I was well happy.

Oh yeah, and some one gave me some warm socks as well.




Artemise.

I guess I'm not a 'target' since I'm not an American, but I feel touched by your anger nonetheless. At some level I know you're right in a lot of what you say, but at the same time, your also very wrong. Life just doesn't work the way you seem to be implying it ought. It never has and it probably never will. The strong have always eaten the weak and asking or demanding they feel shame for their success is like asking a carnivore to feel pity for its prey. It can't happen unless you change the fundamental nature of humanity.

Thanks, Mrs. P (of the good kind)

We talked and cried about the misery that is in life last night, a yearly ritual, a purging of sorts. The origins start out personal and head into the global, maybe universal. Every day should be like Christmas, not the gift giving part or the decorating part, but the kindness part. It isn't a hard thing to do, being kind. It might just be a smile given or simply listening.

Well, it's easy to do when one is strong, when the pressures are light or at least within means.

Yes, happy holidays to all, and to all let go of a smile at least once each day, if only to the mirror.

Each and every day. After that, grump all you want. Make it a rule. Make it a ritual. Don't howl in the wilderness without it.

Mrs. P, those are my sentiments to a “T”. The reason really doesn’t matter. If for only two weeks, two days or two hours, we find it easier to smile, open a door, converse with a stranger, act with a bit more humanity and maybe give our time to the less fortunate than the holiday season serves a purpose.

It should also be a reminder that is often overlooked in the chaotic modern lifestyle or the chaos created by corrupt governments, that if one is careful enough to look you’ll discover there is still a whole lot of good in a world that some times appears has forgotten its manners. There is still hope for humankind; I’ve just spent the last two weeks witnessing it in various forms. And if it takes the holiday season to keep that hope alive than in my mind it’s worth every possible inconvenience.

But I also agree with many others who have written that other than the religious context of the season there’s nothing more assuring than watching children this time of year. Last week while returning to the desk after a meeting I turned the corner and came up behind the daily parade of little ones tied together making their pilgrimage from the play ground to the day care here at work. I stopped and called out a “Ho, ho, ho”.

With physical precision possibly matched only by River Dance, nine little heads turned in unison with eyes as big as the sky.

What a wonderful time of the year.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and best wishes for the New Year.

I can't help thinking that this Christmas was so much better than last year's Christmas.

Just being together with no one sick or in the hospital was wonderful. My brother was able to travel on dry roads to get to our house for Christmas dinner and a few hands of Euchre.

I'm not forgetting in the least the fact that our country is at war in at least two countries, undeclared war which drains our treasury and robs our families and those of the Afghanis and Iraqis of loved ones. If we truly believe that each life is supposed to be precious, there is tremendous loss.

This awareness of grief and pain lends poignancy to the celebrations we have, knowing that next year not all of us may be together again. Does that mean that we dwell on the sadness and deprive ourselves and each other of opportunities to have good memories? I don't think so.

I find myself thinking of the Whos in Whoville who celebrated even after the Grinch had stolen all of the trappings of their celebration, and of the Grinch pulling Max down from hanging from the overloaded sleigh to muse, "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And then the moral of the silly story was evident: externals are just that when Christmas is truly celebrated.

Yes, we have a lot for which we should rightly be ashamed. And we can contact our Congresspeople, write letters to editors, run for office, serve in soup kitchens, demonstrate, and even cover ourselves in sackcloth and ashes to mourn our sins and the sins of our government. But I think we need to take the time to celebrate our blessings and to practice kindness in the name of something bigger than ourselves.

As this is still Christmastide (until Epiphany), Merry Christmas to all of you and Happy New Year! And hope you all had a Blessed Solstice (which I also celebrate)!

PE,

Right square into the center of it. Every good Christmas story is about this, every good story about humans in the thick of reality coming through. Seuss was a genius far greater than Einstein.

He made kids believe. Einstein made kids afraid, huddled under our pitiful little desks. Don't think he ever forgave himself for that.

The story that kept coming in this year, for me, was the one about two enemy armies meeting for one short time to celebrate the season. I think it was WW I, and maybe it's fiction. Don't know, don't care, but that's the idea. If we can hold an idea, we can make it reality.

That is the truth of idealism. Then I think about the visions of the shining example of Iraq, a democratic nation in the midst of fundamentalism hatred, how that was an idealism of a different kind. It's different because it was a sales pitch. It was a lie, a falsehood from the beginning. Idealism without truth is bound to fail.

There's fear and there's courage. One goes with the other, and while the fear might outweigh the courage for most of the year, a time of great darkness and coldness is best celebrated with light. We, the Whos of Whoville, dare to shine a light.

We dare to celebrate.

It's an ancient thing and beyond human. There will be those who insist on pointing out the foolishness, the hypocritical parts of it. Those who insist it is cold and dark, thereby not worthy of celebration. It is a wilderness with only the draw of howling at the deserving evil.

Yeah, that's true too. The Grinch was a [self-regulated attempt at bypassing the no-no filter]. He deserved a knife in the guts.

But the Whos of Whoville just went along with what came natural, as we did when kids, and as we do now as sentient adults, perhaps too sentient at times.

Wisdom has its own price. Ah, but screw all that. A candle still burns in the thick night.

Even though the actual new year began the night of the 22nd, we will celebrate it on the first of January. Or for some of us, well before the midnight hour because we will be snoozing by then, or well after when we'll be having something good to eat. It doesn't have to be green eggs and ham or blackeyed peas.

It's important to try to make this world a better place. Einstein might have done that, we just don't know how yet. Maybe the Iraq project will turn out in a similar manner. It might not be for our lives. It might be for the kids somewhere down the line. And maybe, as often happens in this world, it will be by chaos burning itself out.

The universe had to cool down for Christmas, and all other celebrations, to happen. From Einstein we know how special this period is in the vastness of reality, this time between very hot and very cold. It's a temporary state of the universe, so the physics indicate.

From Seuss we get a suggestion that it doesn't matter. Something else is of greater importance.

It's a really good story.

Except the robbed werent you. Im sure Iraqi's truly feel like the Who's. Grateful, except, the grand Grinch ( no wait, Bechtel, didnt return them water and Haliburton, the corporations of Whoville, didnt return them electricity, and Democracy didnt quite turn out in THEIR "World" 'cooling down to celebrate. Santa did not come to all the wounded and maimed little Iraqi children of the 'World' like it did to American children of the World, no, their arms and legs were still being blown off by yet another american war, 3 years now. Those Who's , man they sure should be grateful, because it's a time to celebrate! And be kind to one another.



Dare to shine a light on who? And dare to celebrate WHAT? Total ignorance? Death at your hands? Kindness to each other but not the people who's destruction you have made for decades to come and decades previous in your democracy, which you desire to spread at point of bombs?

My point is , we have to wake up! We cant keep sitting around slacking off while this is going on in our names.

You are all slobbering about kindness and christmas, and every day should be Christmas, and goodness and positivity and light and good cheer, for you! Youre all full of crap because tomorrow youll be talking about insurgents and how Iraqi's are responsible for their own war, and how they need to be slaughtered to HELP them attain some sort of democratic enlightenment!

Ive known you all for years, and this 'kindness' only comes around once a year, and its only for yourselves.
The rest of the time, most of you are a ruthless bunch of warmongering, eye for an eye, get the bad guys, torture if need be, do what it takes to ensure US domination, engage in world war to dispell our fear? Or create More Fear and terror?
You dont even know whats going on inside your country, never mind outside.

Regardless of lack of evidence of wrongdoing by others on so many levels and despite extreme levels of obvious lies, deception and wrongdoing by your own government, you trudge on, in your own self deception and denial SO Much a part of the problem, with unbelivable bloodshed and so, you are going to see yourselves in a Germanic style theft of your rights, and just like you asked, "Why do they hate us" , you are going to be asking "how did we get to the point where we had no rights and we slaughtered so many?"
Ask yourselves 'how' you were so hypnotized by WMD, mushroom clouds? Because soon you are going to be confronted with a war on Iran, they are already performing the spin. You are being fed tidbits of information that is leading you to believe that Iran has mushroom clouds to kill you, and if I gage most of you correctly, you'll buy it, because you are as perdictable as the sun rising in the east.

And thats why I was P-ing on your Christmas, because you are pathetic sheep. You are going to swallow Iran, hook line and sinker, just like you swallowed Iraq, I can see it coming, even though they just had some very postitive democratic elections which suggest they dont support extreme ideologies, that never meant a thing to our government, who has a plan, and it means nothing to you in your sparkly christmas all year long, credit card glee.
Grinch, maybe. Wake up. Your country is being stolen from you, and its not about right or left, at all.
What do you believe in? Do you believe The Constitution and Bill of Rights made us the most exceptional country in the world? That they guaranteed citizen rights over tyranny?
That these documents should be preserved and held as law over and above all that choose to destroy these declared rights, which are the most sacred law of our land? I hate to ask, but I heard that 99% of Americans dont know whats in the documents, have you read them? Is it ok for the present Admin to destroy these rights because we were attacked?
No, it is not.

You know, the philosophy of America and its complex problems at this time being thought about and discussed on Suess terms is EVEN LESSER than the level I would have suspected, but it doesnt suprise me in the least that thats the highest level of philosophy you can collectively subscribe to. What is that, a second grade education?
It takes into no account your fault for war done in your name , and gives you some cozy idea that anyone objecting to US war crimes is simply 'raining on your holiday parade'. You are a nation of denial and ignorance in the extreme. It is not going to serve you to continue to deny real world events.

You could easily make your opinions known without seeming to spit at everyone contemptuously, and most of us would likely find such observations insightful and take them to heart. A simple, "Think about others less fortunate, we should use the holidays to concentrate on peace, yadda yadda" would have gone a lot further than what you have done here. At this point, I have to say you are demonstating an absurd irony in your malicious rants here, after so recently posting a thread on orgasms for "peace". Did you post this without knowing anything about the way the project is supposed to work? It is all centered around pleasant, peaceful thoughts influencing world events. Like, the exact opposite of the type of dialog you are driving here.

A quote from one of the websites that promote the types of action that you ostensibly favor guessing from your orgasm thread: Moving toward Peace


link to the random conscious project What the studies indicate (which might be debatable, but just going by what your own link espouses) is that seemingly random events might be influenced by group consciousness. So, little things like treating others kindly and thinking nice thoughts can go a long way towards promoting peace. Think of when you are sitting in traffic...does the person who cuts people off, tailgates, shouts and flips the middle finger help things or make everything worse? Interesting thing about that, the person doing the finger flipping is always the one complaining about everyone else's driving.

To continue...This has been somewhat verified by other means as well…One example I know of was the massive transcendental meditation study in a Washington dc, in 1993. For two months, a large group participated in a mass meditation project violent crime, which had been steadily increasing, began to fall during that time and continued to drop until the end of the experiment. When the group disbanded, the crime rate began to rise again. Results here

I'd have to add, too, that your sentiments here are preposterously arbitrary. Screw Christmas. None of you have the right to celebrate it. Have orgasms. For some reason we can celebrate in this way and that is okay with you. How about birthdays other than Jesus’? Are they okay to celebrate? Why? Nothing has changed with the occupation. Next week will be a Muslim holiday and about a million will perform the Hajj. I trust you will post an equal rant about why Muslims cannot celebrate because there is violence in Darfur and/or Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq? I mean, really, how can a Muslim have a holiday while children are victims of bombings between warring Muslims? Nevermind.

Oh no Mrs P. you laughed your way through the peace demonstration, but now claim a false holiday , which hardly anyone remembers as a christian prophet, completely commercialized, is worth a shilling of thought?

I saw your previous post, but chose to ignore it. I posted the OGD as a 'fun' topic, not a religious or ideological dogma, but it was terribly too sexual for you mods. You want to keep bringing it up? You shat on that, quite diharrealea.

I believe its time to get malicious, or lose ourselves to this Globalization process. Its not even a stand off, all of us are in trouble.
Its just dandy that you would normally subscribe that liberals are a bunch of loonies for believing in possible peaceful solutions, except when it suits you, then you EXPECT adherance to a philosphy you so distain.
We can have have peaceful thoughts and meditation, but, they need to be in the right direction. Nelson Mandela must have meditated his way through 18 years of prison internment, that doesnt mean that people on the outside were not actually 'fighting' to end the tyranny.

If meditation would change all you warmongerers, I would do it, but its not going to. So I choose another way and the monks of the world can meditate. You chose to make fun of me about my Orgasms Day post, you and your soldier husband. Im sure you would never consider that the World might one day not support your views of perpetual war.
So I should meditate while you bomb the crap out of people? I dont think so, it takes multiple strategies.

How about YOU meditate on World Peace? I bet your husband would have a good 'expletive you cannot mention on THAT!' Certainely, since you think about as much about making war as I think about peace, except when it has to do with you and yours, we are probably cancelling each other out in the spiritual conciousness, so someone else will have to pick up.

Interesting. You posted a "fun topic" and scream at me for having fun with it? Okay. Thanks for providing me with amusement this morning.

I think I'm through addressing your contempuous rant, just wanted to give you some food for thought. Now, continue your driving and finger flipping. It seems to work well for you.

I didnt scream at you about anything concerning, my screaming is about war , about war crimes, about ignorance and lack of comprehension, about 'looking at the bloody bodies' , the dead, the dying, on that I can scream, because someone needs to.
Screaming, sadness and anger 'is' the appropriate healthy response, regardless that you do not see it or ever adress what I am talking about but choose to take up superficial tangents, doing your part in the mass psychosis of denial. The 'inappropriate' response is non-reaction, inhumane disillusionment that comes from a belief and acceptance of the sickness of war.
A psychotic and sociopathic lack of feeling towards others suffering, THAT is the deafening non-screaming.
Especially towards people who NEVER did a thing against you, however your government did a number on them for decades. It really takes arrogance to hold onto the upper hand position, blame THEM after all.

Everyone’s ignorance but your own, of course. Everyone who celebrates Christmas is guilty! No one must ever have a joyous moment because people are dying! Not dwelling on this fact 24/7 and living in despair means you don’t care and don’t comprehend the grim reality of life. All soldiers and their families are warmongers not interested in peace….but of course, you’ve just indicated out of the other side of your mouth that meditation isn’t enough but action is necessary. How this supports your theory I have no idea, but as long as you make sure every minute of your life sucks and you can spread that feeling around as much as possible that will help.

Read through your above posts. Is this really the person you want to be? It starts with you, the measure of a person’s character is how they treat others, not their political belief system.

...it just isn't Christmas without an argument breaking out

I used to hate the Christmas season for this. We've tried very hard not to snipe at each other, as we both have reasons to feel badly this time of year. When New Year's Day comes around, we both let out a big and heavy sigh of relief. Another one has passed and nobody we know has died.

I am deadly serious here.

There was a time that the sound of a ringing phone made me flinch. Now all that seems so long ago, yet every year it's a big pressure to keep the lids on. I think we're getting better at it, and last night I put on an album by Sugar Blue, a guy who plays harmonica like Charlie Parker played sax. Blues and jazz helped push away the lurking shadows that try to dredge up old misery.

Maybe one should not help out the shadows. Maybe one should have some damn respect. Beneath the tinsle and trees, the packages and food, there is pain. We don't need to be reminded of it, and attempting to do so is one of the most boorish things a person can do.

This is very true.

I worked in the jewelry department at a local Dillard's a couple of Christmas seasons in the mid-70s. I witnessed couples arguing over something as trivial as what style band for a Timex. In one such instance the husband slammed the credit card on the counter, told his wife to take care of it and stomped off.

Dillard's leased space to Radio Shack. During one of my years Radio Shack played the "Chipmunk Song" continuously over and over for a couple. I can only conclude that the Radio Shack manager who ordered this kept his brain close to where he sat.

Regardless of whether one celebrates Christmas or the winter solstice, life does go on. I am about to leave for the funeral of a friend of 46 years who died Tuesday morning.

I begin to understand why this time of year is called "the silly season."

Only here could a thread as apparently innocuous as wishing a Merry Christmas become a flashpoint for anger, invective and controversy.

The week between Christmas and New Years Day is one of both pleasure and pain. The pleasure comes on Christmas when my family gets together for a dinner and gift exchange. We don't buy for each other, just for the kids because as I said before Christmas is for the kids.

The pain comes every December 31 because that's when my mother passed away from kidney failure. It's been eight years now and the memory of sitting in the hospital staring at her corpse is still as raw and painful now as it was then.

It's okay to feel empathy for all those suffering from cruelty and selfishness. It's fine to moved by the struggles of those less fortunate. It is a uniquely human thing to feel guilt over being blessed with so much and wonder how that is reconciled with so many having so little.

But nobody can make me feel like I am personally responsible for the evils of the world. I am not and I refuse to allow anyone to tell me I am a bad person because I want to be happy and smile and enjoy the brief time on this earth. I am well aware of the grief and unfairness of the world.

But...

All the world's problems ain't my fault. The problems of war and the evil plans of evil men existed before I was here and they will be here long after I'm gone. They defy the ability of any one man or woman to rectify. I cannot carry all the weight of the world upon my shoulders. I've got my own crap to deal with and I don't see the world spending a lot of time worrying over me and my petty issues.

I can cry over AIDS in Africa and poverty in America and war in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, global warming, or the plight of women and children across the globe. But eventually you run out of tears. Seeking the brief escape of the holiday season is a way for some of us to stay sane. Sometimes the giving of a gift to someone we love is an affirmation of our humanity.

I'm sorry some people don't deal with this time of year well. I think I have a pretty good excuse myself to be sullen and resentful of all this forced sweetness and light. The thing is everybody has their own pain to deal with. We should all be respectful of that and keep our pain private instead of spilling it all over.

But maybe that's just me. I come from a time when both your passions and your pains were private affairs.

Life, as well as death, goes on. The Christmas season gives us a respite to embrace life---warts and all--for an all too brief time. It gives us hope for a better tomorrow. Personally, I think that's a good thing.

That sounds awesome, Mrs. P. You might get a chuckle to know that our Christmas holiday was spent in Las Vegas this year. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called The Wynn. It was a different sort of experience. We traveled with another couple and their daughter. My husband is Jewish so he doesn't feel the way I do about Christmas. I enjoy the Christmas tree more than anything else and I can only vicariously experience it at my mom's house. However, the spirit of Christmas is what truly makes the holiday special and even in big cities people will break through their impersonal shells and extend warm wishes to others.

The world is filled with war and pain, that is true....But it is important to remember the love and compassion that exists in the hearts of the majority of human beings. That is what makes this a special time of year. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

It's interesting that you mentioned something to the effect that Christmas is a false holiday, Artemise. And your assertion, nighttimer, that you cannot carry the weight of the world on your shoulders is especially fitting and not a little ironic in this thread. As a matter of fact, it can shed a little light on just why some of us celebrate Christmas...

According to the Bible Jesus tried to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders when dying on the cross. It is a measure of your faith whether he succeeded or not. Such selflessness in a man certainly merits celebration of his birth, 20th and 21st century trappings and distractions notwithstanding.

This man railed against injustice and hypocrisy. But because his avowed followers do not practice an asceticism that others think Jesus would have liked, then their belief in the baby in the manger who grew up to be the central figure in history must be bogus. Not necessarily.

I am going to try to say this as gently as possible, Artemise. People who celebrate Christmas when there is so much wrong going on in the world aren't necessarily sheep or hypocrites. I am an activist, certainly not as active as my friends who traveled down to demonstrate against the School of the Americas in Georgia, but I have lifted my voice, written letters and demonstrated against the Iraq war.

Does that mean that I--or my even more activist friends--must disavow celebrating Christmas to meet with your approval?


As far as the Seuss fable about the Grinch being too simplistic, might I remind you that "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is also a simplistic concept?

The Seuss fable was a children's story with a moral, nothing more. I don't think anybody else read into it a political statement. It was affirming what's good about Christmas, not a Law & Order episode about a "perp" who got away with robbery because he had a change of heart and returned the stuff, which the Grinch did after all.

The fact is that each and every one of us is going to take "the long dirt nap" someday. Some of us believe in an afterlife; others here believe that this life is all we have, whatever. It is contingent upon us to find in our lives what has meaning to us. Celebrations with family and other loved ones provide opportunities for joy and a sense of belonging. The birth of a child is supposed to be a happy occasion; therefore the birth of a very important man by anyone's estimation should be that much happier. The fact that there have been some great souls who have walked this earth gives us occasion to hope. We need hope, and we need to take time to celebrate our lives together, especially when times are bad.

If you don't feel that Christmas is something you want to celebrate, fine. But many of us still find value in Christmas and the good feelings we get from giving, loving and sharing.

--------------------------------------
(An aside to nighttimer: I understand where you're coming from; please accept my empathy. My mom died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on December 29, 1996. On that preceding Christmas she was too sick to eat Christmas dinner. I still miss her very much.)

America is at war, although not by the votes or decisions of anyone that I campaigned or voted for. I have heard veterans describe the Second World War, the Korean War, Vietnam, etc. I have been consistently opposed to the war in Iraq, but I suspect there are a few hundred threads where we can discuss that. This is Christmas, where I would much rather describe the memories and the surprises.

One of my earliest Christmas memories was the tradition of my Father fighting with my mother while Christmas Dinner was being prepared. Eventually, he would leave the house and walk to The Salvation Army so that he could eat his Christmas Dinner in peace...

One of my most unique memories of Christmas was when Dad retired as Santa Claus, and the store where he had worked for over a decade as Santa decided that he was irreplaceable and sent the suit home with him as a parting gift. For 25 years or so, in two cities, he had worked as Santa so that mother could bring us downtown, get our pictures taken, and we would tell Santa what we really wanted for Christmas. That year, on Christmas Eve, we started a tradition that outlived my father. He would dress as Santa, and mother would drive around town, and he would drop in on people unexpectedly. He usually handed out candy canes, wished people Merry Christmas, and sent the little ones off to bed.

I inherited the Santa Suit and wore it on several occasions over a decade's time. I remember caroling with a Camp Fire troop one year, and seeing a little boy stare out a window. I went up to talk for a moment, and learned that he had left his favorite coloring book behind when he and his mother left an abusive father/spouse earlier that day. My wife purchased a coloring book and crayons, and I dropped it off on Christmas Eve. It was a chance for him to start over at coloring his favorite coloring book. "Santa, how did you know which one?" Sometimes prayers are answered, I guess...

I have been dressed as Santa when a grown man sat on my lap, complained of a lousy deer season, and would I please just fly close enough to his window that he could get a clear shot at one of my reindeer...

My older brother tried to explain to his therapist how bitter he had been when he had learned there was no Santa. His plan was to raise his young son to know from the beginning that Santa was a myth. His therapist told him that he needed to learn to deal with reality; that children in America are going to grow up to believe in Santa.

I remember the year that we had just purchased a new house. All of our Christmas presents were ordered from a nearby catalog store which shall remain nameless. When we had closed on the house, and were given the keys, we found it was occupied. We called the police, who called the Realtor, who called the previous owner, who had given his daughter permission to live there. The Realtor's attorney explained the ramifications of fraud to him, and we took possession later the same day. When the store had no record of our placing an order on Christmas Eve, I went home and found our copy of the order. The manager put two and two together. The woman who had taken our order had signed the form, and had lived at the same address as I was living for a couple of days. He got on the phone, and before the store closed, all of our order was there to be picked up.

A few days after my birthday this year, I got a surprise e-mail from a younger sister. She and her husband were making plans to retire, and they had decided to give me their second car. It is parked in our driveway, and PE tells me that she likes it better than the car we had been using. In mid-June, if I can get the neurologist to sign off that it is safe, I can apply to get my driver's license reinstated. Until then, I got a used car for Christmas this year, but I have yet to sit in the driver's seat...

But Christmas is still more about the birth of a child more than it is about Santa. As a father of three, I always found their births to be a miracle. What a blessing it is to hold a few pounds of human being in your arms and know, that even if I never succeeded in being President or bringing a lasting peace to the world... Maybe this next generation will succeed!

Edited to insert a note about a White Christmas...

In Michigan, snow on Christmas is a fact of life most years, but this year the weather photo on one of the local TV Stations showed a dandelion blooming in their lawn.

PE,

Jesus Christ's life and death on Earth has to be the best story ever. I have prayed to Jesus, as I have prayed to the Great Spirit, or God. I will continue to do so regardless of the judgements of my fellow human beings.

We are not to judge. We are to do the best we can with what we got. Everybody makes mistakes; everybody is flawed; nobody got my blues but me.

Christmas to Christians is about Jesus Christ. Now, historically speaking, that's not exactly right, but I don't care. I think Midnight Mass, whether in a huge cathedral or in a little church in the mountains, is one of the most grand, the most inspiring, the most beautiful things humans have ever created. The Canon in D has always, and will always, bring tears to my eyes and an aching to my heart. The same goes for Silent Night when done by a chorus, preferably of children singing off key.

Christmas 2006 has passed, yet the music still plays on. I want it to. I will it to. I thank God for this and pay homage to Jesus for trying.

That's what we do.

When it comes time to meet my maker, I want to look the spirit directly on and say, "God, I did my best. Sorry it wasn't enough."

The best response I anticipate is, "You were a really good story."

We all have our stories, as Jesus Christ had. It was a good story, the man who tried to take on the sins of the world. Your story is good too, if you make it so. It doesn't have to be a sweet story. It could be a tragedy or a comedy. It could be an adventure or a mystery. It could be a gritty detective tale. It might be a fiery romance. Terror could be part of it. War and suffering, starvation and death.

At my worst, I suspect the spirits want that too. At my best, I'm not sure. Is evil caused by humans or does it exist apart? Don't really know. It might be point of view.

BoF, take care. You have my sincere sympathy. I'll toot some harp for you and yours, me and mine, everyone and everybody. That's what it's about.

Curmudgeon,

Arf! I played Santa one year at Memorial Hospital. It was a hoot. Great stories, the one about the reindeer and hunter had me rolling.

Nighttimer, right on, as usual.

Mrs. P, don't think I'd ever have the guts to pick a fight with you.

Doomed planet, didn't I see you on the street the other day? I remember the smile. It must be contagious.

All the people of the world, damn, am I ever sorry or what? If I can do anything about it, I will. This isn't a promise to you but to the Great Spirit & etc., cuz that makes good stories and that's what they want. Drives me nuts sometimes.

Happy New Year All!

I often hear people talking about their "Christmas spirit," whatever that may be. The trouble is that it many cases it doesn't last much beyond the new year, if that long.

There are two Border's in Fort Worth. I live closer to the newer one, but prefer the staff, selection and traditions of the older one.

Yesterday, I went to the older Border's. I was greeted by a long time acquaintance who told me that corporate was closing the store January 20.

The woman in the expresso bar confirmed the story. After employees spent money on Christmas, corporate got around to telling them the days after Christmas. Apparently all employees of that store will have to reapply for their old jobs at other Border's. The remaining store cannot possibly absorb all the employees of the one being closed.

Yeah, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and by the way. you're fired. Ah, the spirit of The Donald trumps Christmas.