The Reason For the Season

A phrase I am growing to dislike more and more is the phrase, "Jesus is the reason for the Season." Now, I realize that if it wasn't for the birth of my LORD and Saviour, Jesus, that we would not have this wonderful holiday called Christmas; however, isn't Jesus the reason for ALL Seasons? Did he not create the universe and all that is in it? What about Easter? Isn't he the reason for that season as well?

I know good minded Christian folk are just trying to remind people to remember the origins of Christmas and how it was created to focus the world's attention on Jesus and his teachings, instead of the greed promoted by retailers around the world; yet I can't help but think that if Christians really wanted to remind people about the love of Jesus we wouldn't be putting trash bags full of wrapping paper and empty boxes from all our new "luxuries" out by the curb the day after Christmas. Instead shouldn't we be give up giving gifts to each other and giving to those who are really in need. After all isn't Christmas the season of giving, not getting? Since Jesus is the reason for ALL seasons, shouldn't we be giving to those in need throughout the year, not just for Christmas?

So as we put out our trash the day after Christmas, remember that Jesus really is THE reason for this season and remember those who have would be grateful to have what we just replaced with more stuff we probably really didn't need in the first place.

English Family Photo 2008!

Actually this picture was made in October of this year, but it was part of a series of family photos, made along with my sister and her daughter, we made to give to my parents as a Christmas gift. We really liked this one with the Flag flying in the background!

Merry Christmas 2008!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - 2008

My wife Jamie and I have a tradition each year of buying each other 12 gifts for Christmas (not counting anything that fits in our stockings). Each gift must be $5.00 or less, not counting tax, and one gift can be up to $10.00. This is hard for me because their are not many things out there that are $5.00 or less. You have to be very creative sometimes. Here is what I got from my bride, Jamie this year.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 2 pairs of needed dress socks

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: A Wine Tasting for Dummies Kit (includes a book about how to get to know the types of wines and 4 wine glasses) Sadly the day before I got a box of 4 wine glasses as part of the gift exchange at my work Christmas Party. Wine anyone?

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 2 pairs of needed dress socks

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a 4 pack of Starbucks Frappachinos (Mocha flavor)

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a wooden cross magnet that has a "secret Bible verse" engraved on it.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Red "I'm a Christian Dad" T-shirt

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 2 pairs of needed dress socks (I am now good on dress socks for the next few years)

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: the movie "Patriot Games" on DVD. This was the movie we watched on our first "official" date. How Romantic! (Romantic that she remembered the movie, but not such a romantic movie to watch on a first date.)

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: A pair of Salt & Pepper Shakers that fit together like puzzle pieces (You have to have seen the movie: Fireproof, to appreciate this gift.)

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a set of metal brain-teaser puzzles.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a pair of nice shorts for next spring.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: A nice dress short sleeve shirt!

The strangest gift I received, so far, this year came from my mother. She got me a monogrammed silver toothpick holder! Ooohhh! Now I can finally reach that piece of popcorn that has been stuck back there for years.

I'm Singing, I'm in an Outback and I'm Singing!

The Longview Wellness Center, my place of employment, is having their annual Christmas party tomorrow. They are providing a nice spread at Outback Steakhouse! I chose the ribs!

We are also doing a gift exchange. With about 80+ people, this should be fun.

They are also doing a Longview Wellness Center Idol Contest. At first I thought, there is no way they can make me sing, but then I found out there is a $100.00 cash prize and there were only 3 other people signed up. So I became the fourth Idol contestant. Hey, I think embarrassing myself is worth it for a 1 in 4 chance to win some cash. I am singing a song that I wrote, a cappella style. Maybe I will get points for bravery, by singing without the music?

I will let you know how I fared just as soon as I can. I know you can't wait to see if I become a star or not! (NOT!)

Update: Dec. 12, 2008 -- I finished 3rd out of 6 contestants! No prize for 3rd Place though. : (

Hey Wal-Mart, Are You Skipping Thanksgiving?

I was in my local Wal-Mart yesterday and I heard Christmas music playing over their speakers. Christmas already? What about Thanksgiving? I know there is not a specific "Thanksgiving" music genre, but to already be killing our ears with Christmas music is a little premature in my opinion.

Now, I love the Christmas season, but too much Christmas music makes me grumpy instead of cheery. I'm sure Wal-Mart still has plenty of other musical selections to play until after Turkey Day right? They have an entire music department they could raid from.

No offense to the birth of Christ or Santa, but I would like to be thankful for my blessings God has given me first, before I engage in my generous (according to the economy) gift giving and the listening of Christmas music.

What I got for Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas Day with their family! The presents are unwrapped and now a home must be found for them other than our living room floor. The visits with both sides of the family are over and my family has the rest of the week to ourselves, before school/work starts again next week. As for me I plan to just lay around in P.J.'s the whole week, NOT, we have some work to be done around the house.

The nice lady who cleans our house for us has disappeared off the face of the earth. We have not seen hide nor hair of her since mid-November. We would suspect something valuable is missing, but she is an Elder's wife at one of local church congregations. Still nothing seems to be missing in the house. She just stopped showing up. We called to check on her and there is no answer at their house. We called the church, and they said no one in her family was sick and they were not on vacation. Hmmm. I guess this means we have to clean our own house again for a while. (What a shame, to have to clean your OWN house...ha, ha!)

I did manage to get a nice bit of "stuff" for Christmas from family and friends. Here is my list...

I got three books: one from Ted Dekker, one from Randy Alcorn and a book by former President Jimmy Carter.
I got a $10.00 gift card to Books-A-Million.
I got a $5.00 Sonic card.
I got two pairs of Christmas type boxers and two pairs of long sleep pajama pants. I got a pair of Black & Decker power scissors, that are supposed to cut through that hard plastic outer coating that they came in. (Took several minutes to use regular scissors just to get out the new pair.)
I got a book of questions about "How much do you know your wife?" and another book like it called, "How much do you know about World War II?"
I got a baseball shaped "stress ball" that I traded with my daughter for a football shaped one. (She liked the baseball one better.)
I got a four pack of Vanilla flavored Starbucks Frappachino drinks. (Already gone.)
I got three new nice shirts to wear and $25.00 cash.

Now I need to go back to sleep...my kids woke us up at 5:00 a.m. --- maybe my next gift can be an interrupted 1 hour nap. --- Yea, that sounds good.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus...I can't wait for You to come and take us home with You.

That's My King!!

This video was put together to honor the late S.M. Lockridge, who once presented an incredible message, describing our God and who He is. Though God can't be described with just words, this is as close as you can get this side of Heaven.



And now a message from Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee...



Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas

An Interesting Christmas Observation & Fun Christmas Lights

The other day my family and I were remembering watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. While remembering the good things about the show: Rudolph becoming a hero, the Bumble turning good, and Hermie becoming a Dentist, we also came to the conclusion that Santa Claus may be just a touch prejudice. What? Santa is prejudice?

If you recall, when Santa first saw Rudolph and his "red-nose", Santa felt sorry for Donner and his wife, and told them that Rudolph would never be able to pull his sleigh. Wow, Santa discriminating against Rudolph because of his red-nose. It would be the equivilant of a sports coach not letting a handicap kid play on the team just because he/she looks different from the rest of the team. I thought Santa loved every one. It finally took an "emergency" for Santa to finally realize that Rudolph's nose was not a handicap but instead a blessing. At least Santa learned his lesson.

Now that I'm through bashing Santa...here is a video clip of some amazing Christmas Lights put to music. The person responsible no longer displays his lights this way, due to heavy traffic caused in his neighborhood. It is still fun to watch though!

Some of My Family's Christmas Traditions

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the annual reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! by Barbara Robinson. Every time I read the book, I come to tears in the end. It is both serious and funny, much like the Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park. (I wonder if your name has to be Barbara to write great intermediate level books?) My wife and I read this book to our children every Christmas. This year I read it to my Adult Education Class. They also loved the story. I wish I could find it on DVD or on tape.

Other Christmas traditions include:

(1) Reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess (and of course watching the television version with Boris Karloff doing the voices.

(2) Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV. Even though we own it own tape, we love to gather around and eat popcorn and support the showing of this timeless classic.

(3) Watching the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV Special). The songs get stuck in your head and you can't help but sing along with them. Plus who doesn't love "The Bumble."

(4) Doing the "12 Days of Christmas" gift exchange with my wife. We will each buy each other 12 gifts for Christmas (not counting the stocking). All gifts, except one, must be $5.00 dollars and under. One can be $10.00 or under. This helps us to think about each other more during the Christmas season, and we get to torture our kids by opening the presents, one day at a time, starting 12 days before Christmas. I have been trying to get my dear bride to adjust the amounts to spend to adjust for inflation, but so far she has not budged. She said if I want to get her something that costs more, that is what the stockings are for!

(5) Spending time at home with the kids. It's a great chance to get some extra loving on them before the year ends and it's back to school.

(6 & 7) Putting up the Christmas Tree. I am almost always the one who wants to put up the tree. I am ready to have it up the day after Thanksgiving. It helps we have another tradition that goes along with the tree. Each Family Member picks a new ornament for the tree. Some times the ornament can mean something special about the past year, or it can just be an ornament that they like. Most of the time Mom & Dad pick a "couples" ornament together. (You know, ones that have two mice sipping a soda, or two penguins dancing, or something like that.) But sometimes we do pick individual ornaments. The ornaments the kids pick we will send with them when they move off to college or start their own families.

(8) Watching -- Frank Capra's, It's a Wonderful Life either on television or on DVD. It's a great movie that ranks as one of my favorite films.

(9) Driving Around on Christmas Eve to look at Christmas Lights and Displays, while wearing a new set of matching P.J.'s! Driving around looking at Christmas lights has been a tradition for the past couple of years, but the new P.J.'s will be a new tradition starting this year. My wife has purchased a set of matching P.J.'s for the family that we will open of Christmas Eve. She plans to buy some new P.J.'s for us every year so we can wear them to ride around in. Cool!

We start these traditions shortly after Thanksgiving in order to get them all in before Christmas. We are currently reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!" at night. We have already seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on television. I think we own the Rudolph Special on tape and we may wait to watch it a little later. The tree, of course, is up. We have our new ornaments on the tree. (My wife and My's ornament this year is a Penguin giving a Polar Bear a Coca-Cola. My son's ornament is a mouse sitting on a video game controller. He sure loves the video games. My daughter's ornament is a dog in a dog-house. It has a bone above the dog house that you were supposed to write the name of your family pet in. But she wanted her own name written in, because she loves dogs so much.) I have finished my "12 Days of Christmas" shopping, I just need one more good stocking stuffer. I think my wife has one more to get for me. We have even finished our shopping from "Santa" for the kids. I think. Now we just need school to get out so we can enjoy the Christmas Break!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, That Will Never Come

Here I am sitting at home enjoying a supposed to be relaxing on a nice Sunday afternoon, yet I can't seem to get my mind off the weather. The windows are open, to let in the cool air, because it is a balmy 80+ degrees in Texas. You would think it was early Summer with the recent weather we have been having. For crying out loud it's December and it's so warm outside you could wear shorts. Now, I'm not a big fan of cold/wet weather, but isn't that what we are supposed to be having in December? I want the cold weather. I want a fire in the fireplace. I want some hot chocolate; I don't want a suntan! I can't remember the last time it snowed where I live. Someone did tell me it snowed at my current home the year before I moved in. Maybe I cursed the place? I think I remember about 5 years ago it snowed enough to make a snowman with the family, but "Frosty" melted the next day. Like I said before, I don't want 5 foot snow drifts to trap my family indoors, but a little snow would be great. Maybe, just maybe, if I prayed hard enough, God would send us some snow for Christmas. Pleeeeaasssee God let it snow for Christmas. Even Texas deserves a little white stuff from time to time.

Tis the Season to Be Jolly and Overcrowded

Tis the season to be Jolly, Fa-la-la-la-laa, La-la-la-la!
Go to Wal-Mart it's overcrowded, Fa-la-la-la-laa, Hey, I need some service over here!

This time of the year creates so many mixed feelings for me. I love the weather. I love the tradition of putting up the Christmas Tree (ours goes up tomorrow). I love the focus on the birth of Jesus. I like watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas on the television. I love the extra long break from school and the anticipation of opening gifts chosen just for you. I also love to watch those I chose gifts for open their presents as well.

Despite all the things I love, there are also several things I don't like. I really don't like the overcrowded stores, Especially Wal-Mart. The customer service there is bad enough already, but it is especially bad this time of year. Even though I like some Christmas songs, I don't like listening to the same Christmas songs, over-and-over again. I guess I'm just a Scrooge, or a Grinch, when it comes to the songs. To bad for me, the Christmas songs are one of my wife's favorite parts of the holiday season.

Just 30 more days to go!!