Wow, What a Week!!! Welcome to our Christmas Grandson

I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas celebration! I think ours was above and beyond this year! We had a lovely Christmas Eve at my sister's house, for a brunch. That evening we had our church service for Christmas Eve. Sunday, Christmas morning, we were getting ready to leave for church when the phone rang, and our son was telling us he and his wife were on the way to the hospital to have the baby! We went to church and in the afternoon we had a family party, and the day was interspersed with phone calls from my son in Indiana. A little before 2 o'clock we got the news that we had a Christmas Grandson!

Our little Timothy Michael was 9 lbs and 21 1/4" long, so Anna has a baby brother now. In January I am going up for a couple of weeks to meet the little fellow.

The rest of Christmas was special and fun, and I got spoiled by my family, as usual, which of course I love. Then the next day was my husband's birthday and he was actually off work for it, so we had a nice day together.

Yesterday, we celebrated our 33 wedding anniversary! Well, we didn't really get to do very much yet, but it was still special. Actually, the weekend before Christmas, he took me downtown to Fort Myers' historical River District, and we strolled around listening to the street musicians, enjoying the architecture, browsing in the lovely little art galleries, shops and boutiques, and he bought me a really lovely purse. Then we went to lunch. And this weekend we plan dinner and a movie. But the best part is just the privilege of being married to this wonderful man for 33 years! He's my best friend, and the smartest, handsomest, kindest, funniest, most romantic and thoughtful man I've ever met.

The cold I had turned out to be a lot worse than I had anticipated, so I spent nights sitting up in a chair, coughing my brains out, so that wasn't much fun, and I've had laryngitis so I couldn't talk to anyone, which I couldn't do anyway, or eat, without coughing... but I definitely think the good stuff outweighed the bad this past week. Here's a picture to prove it!

White Christmas, Florida Style!

I'm dreaming of a white Florida Christmas
Down at the beach, that would be swell,
Where white sand glistens,
And children listen
To hear the ocean in a shell...

Hey, what can I say, it's a beautiful day in Florida! I do have a cold - but it's not a Christmas cold, oh no. Must just be a Winter Holiday Cold. Nothing that a trip to the beach won't cure. Wish you all were here!

Happy Birthday to the Blessed Jesus Christ on the Holy Day of Christmas

I am puzzled by people who believe they can celebrate Christmas without celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. I can't help thinking how I'd feel if my family decided to celebrate my birthday while excluding me from the festivities.

Or what if people started saying that they wanted to have parades and picnics and fireworks on the 4th of July while denying that the celebration had anything to do with America winning our independence? After all, that was a long time ago. Some people don't even really believe it was all that important, anyway; and what if people from Great Britain got offended by the implication that we won a war against them?

I understand that some people like all of the perks of Christmas without giving any thought to the Host; but is that any reason to hijack it from those of us who celebrate for the Original Reason? No other religious holiday has to contend with people trying to steal it away!

So Merry Christmas to all, but to all those who don't believe in the reason for it, please stop stealing our Holy Day away from us just because you only like the trappings and not the Source of all the Joy that Christmas brings to the world. A Creche is a much more accurate representation of Christmas than a Frosty Snowman or even a Santa Claus.

This is not a just a winter holiday. There are, as people love to point out, lots of holidays in the winter. But each of the others gets to be called by its actual name and be celebrated by those of the faith that it originates with, using the symbols they find meaningful. Christmas is special, but that's because it celebrates the God of Creation becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us. It is filled with joy, hope, love and goodwill; but if you remove the reason for all of those good things, you will be left with a hollow shell of greed, discontentment and over-indulgence. Christmas is first and foremost a religious Holy Day. Without the birth of Jesus Christ, there simply is no Christmas.