For one last time this Christmas season, the stockings have been filled (thank you Target after-Christmas clearance!), a special treat has been baked (it wouldn’t seem like a holiday without Pillsbury Funfetti!), and we will have one last day of “Christmas School” (complete with one last craft and story).
Epiphany signals the end of our Christmas celebrations, but for one more day, we can give gifts, joyfully say “Merry Christmas!” and enjoy our decorations and Christmas music!
Turkey and Bunny (like most children) enjoying making up jokes. I have to admit, many of them fall flat, if they even make any sense at all. But Bunny came up with a joke this Christmas that actually made me laugh out loud, and impressed me, given that it was invented by a six-year-old!
Q: What’s a police man’s favorite holiday?
A: Christmas, so he can sing “Police Navidad!”
It tickled my funny bone, anyway!
I discovered this Christmas that there are five Christmas movies I can watch over and over again, and never tire of. Don’t get me wrong, I have watched many, many Christmas movies this year, and liked them all, but most of them I can watch once, maybe twice a year, and have my fill. Not my top five, though–they deserve multiple viewings!
I could probably cheat a bit, and add a TV program to my list–A Charlie Brown Christmas. I never tire of hearing Linus tell the Christmas story, and I love the music. Plus, I have to respect any animated special that doesn’t focus on (and in fact, barely mentions) Santa.
The “Twelve Days of Christmas” aren’t over yet, so I’m not letting go!
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
This is one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve read about Christmas in a long time.
[It’s still Christmas. . . .]
I keep reading articles and posts complaining about Christmas being too materialistic, criticizing all of the shopping and gift-giving. Many Christians are indignant that non-believers have the presumption to celebrate our holiday. Some are saying that we should just have two separate holidays, a spiritual one for Christians marking Christ’s birth and a materialistic Winter holiday for everyone else.
I reject that! I take the highest satisfaction when non-believers glorify Christ, even against their knowledge or their will, by celebrating His birthday. They give gifts, which are the sign of the Gospel. They force themselves to be benevolent.
The so-called commercialization of Christmas does great good, helping the economy considerably (this was apparently a very good year this season) and bringing happiness to millions of children and grownups alike. People may not fully realize what it means to give and receive gifts, but that gives Christians an opportunity to explain. God’s grace is a gift. Salvation is a gift, not something you have to earn. Christ is the gift. Usually, the person who has the birthday gets the gift. But on Jesus’s birthday everybody gets a gift. Because He is the gift.
My fellow Christians, we don’t need to Christianize everything. Everything is already Christianized! Christ already reigns. The secular world itself unwittingly testifies to Him.
That atheists, secularists, followers of other religions, and others not in the fold celebrate Christmas is a profoundly good thing. It is powerful evidence for the validity of Christianity.
Let’s not separate the spiritual and the material out of an excess of piety or hyper-spirituality. That’s the way of Gnosticism. The very meaning of Christmas is about the spiritual and the material coming together. (emphasis mine)
via In defense of Christmas “materialism” | Cranach: The Blog of Veith.
Today was our final “feast” of the holiday season. Now, compared to Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was a pretty small feast, but it was delicious just the same. Pork roast flavored with garlic, sage, and allspice, (very nice holiday flavors, and it smelled amazing while it was cooking!), homemade mashed potatoes and (not homemade) pork gravy, green beans amandine, and glazed, spiced apples. Oh, and Christmas cracker candy for dessert (yum!).
I’m so over preparing fancy meals–I’m very much looking forward to getting back to our usual fare of casseroles, soups, and pizza nights!
Happy New Year!
Words to ponder from Apollo 13:
Congressman: Now Jim, people in my state keep asking why we’re continuing to fund this program now that we’ve beaten the Russians to the Moon.
Jim Lovell: Imagine if Christopher Columbus had come back from the New World and no one returned in his footsteps.