Where are you Christmas?

[ABSTRUSE]

I hear little Cindy Lou Who singing that and I wonder myself. I've lost Christmas. I can make the Grinch look like Tiny Tim.
I hate Christmas and yet I miss it.
I guess what I mean is having Christmas spirit.
I've been jaded by too many years working retail and past Christmas memories that weren't happy ones.

Has it gone too commercial? too politically incorrect?
I remember when store windows were a high point of the holidays. Now they are stark and lack any essence of Christmas. I know...I decorated them. They should be magical and make you want to go inside the store and find the magic there too.
Eventually people will just coat a stick in glue, roll it in some pine needles and plop a star on top so there is more room for the many gifts they dont' really need below.

Listening to Christmas songs doesn't help either. Ever notice how some of them are really sad?

I don't even think three ghosts showing up at my house will help. Bah Humbug.

*standing here like Charlie Brown on stage*
"Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?"

Share with me some of your Christmas memories, funny ones are best. What got you in the spirit? What was the one gift you remember most? What are your favorite parts of the holiday? the wrapping? buying? baking? drinking?

Maybe one day they will have a shot like you get for the flu only its a christmas spirit shot filled with the joy of the holiday. I'll be first in line.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I hear little Cindy Lou Who singing that and I wonder myself. I've lost Christmas. I can make the Grinch look like Tiny Tim.
I hate Christmas and yet I miss it.
I guess what I mean is having Christmas spirit.
I've been jaded by too many years working retail and past Christmas memories that weren't happy ones.

Has it gone too commercial? too politically incorrect?
I remember when store windows were a high point of the holidays. Now they are stark and lack any essence of Christmas. I know...I decorated them. They should be magical and make you want to go inside the store and find the magic there too.
Eventually people will just coat a stick in glue, roll it in some pine needles and plop a star on top so there is more room for the many gifts they dont' really need below.

Listening to Christmas songs doesn't help either. Ever notice how some of them are really sad?

I don't even think three ghosts showing up at my house will help. Bah Humbug.

*standing here like Charlie Brown on stage*
"Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?"

Share with me some of your Christmas memories, funny ones are best. What got you in the spirit? What was the one gift you remember most? What are your favorite parts of the holiday? the wrapping? buying? baking? drinking?

Maybe one day they will have a shot like you get for the flu only its a christmas spirit shot filled with the joy of the holiday. I'll be first in line.

"I can tell you Charlie Brown." (Shooting myself in the foot here by bringing attention to it but it's almost over so...) When I wrote my Christmas story, A Christmas Dream, I sat down and brainstormed all the things that are happy memories for me about Christmas, the songs, The Charlie Brown Christmas, standing by the wood stove watching snow fall under the streetlamp, and my brother and his wife using cardboard cutouts to make deer tracks in the snow for their son. (I accidentally left out Buchta and Kolachke ) Most everything else is there, what we got in our stockings, wrapping gifts late at night, eggnog before going to bed after midnight mass. It's all there, even the ornament I made as a kid.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

My earliest rememberance of Christmas was when I was 3. My elder sister was 5. My younger sister hadn't come along yet. My mother really could care less about Christmas, but my father loved it. He would spend weeks shopping and preparing. My sister and I were fairly oblivious to the intricacies of the Holiday and went about our business without any real thought about it.

Around the 12th of December my grandparents showed up. This was always a big thing with my sister and I. We loved them. My grandmother was short and grandmotherly fat. My grandfather was tall and monolitic. He grumbled a lot but he and I had a special connection, I think.

A few days later my father came home with a Christmas Tree and set it up in the corner of the living room. My sister went mad. She insisted she would decorate it and busily set about the work. When she was done, I seemed fine to me, if not glorious with its garlands and glass balls and lights that twinkled. Years later, however, my mother showed me a picture of that tree. All the decorations were hung on the lowest tire of branches leaving the rest bare. But what did we know? We were at a lower perspective then.

On the 16th, my mother disappeared into the hospital. Nobody seemed too excited about it, even though the hosptial was for the "deathly ill" in our limited world. Two days later, I remember was oddly sunny and warm. My sister and I were playing in the front yard in the afternoon when my father and mother came down the street from the bus stop on the corner carrying, bundled up, my younger sister. That's when the world changed from my perspective.

 

[3113]

I remember when store windows were a high point of the holidays. Now they are stark and lack any essence of Christmas....

I know working in retail has jaded you, but--not to go Randian on you--I think you're missing the fact that retail is very much where the holiday imagination and, yes, Xmas spirit is to some extent (and boy, is Roxanne gonna love this rant....). Look, I understand where you're coming from. Xmas, to me, has always been a strange experience. It's a holiday celebrating the longest night of the year that was appropriated by one religion--and given that religion's indelible stamp. What's more, the ideal Xmas is usually pictured as a snowy Connecticut holiday in 1947. Right? Which means if you don't have a certain religious faith or live in a northern climate, the whole experience is kinda weird. I mean, imagine if our biggest holiday had come from Hawaii instead of Northern Europe, and so every 25th of December every store and home celebrated the birth of Pele, the goddess of volcanos, with a Hawaiian luau. Imagine trying to have this kind of celebration in the middle of winter in Kansas. How would you get into the spirit?

You'd really have to use your imagination, wouldn't you?

Which is pretty much my point. One of the important essences of the holiday is finding a portal into that imaginary world--into the "season" if you will. Which, ironically, makes retail the hero of the season. Because retail stores do the imagining for us. For example, peppermint is the flavor for this year...have you noticed? Peppermint handsoap, peppermint candles. The others are there--chocolate, gingerbread, eggnog...but everyone is selling their version of peppermint bark. And the color red. Sometimes retail goes for green, sometimes white. One on rare occasions blue or gold. This year it's red and peppermint. I like that. It identifies THIS holiday season. Gives it character. Next season it might be eggnog as the flavor and the color blue! The stores surprise us each year with their "theme." And they give us everything else we might need to step into this imaginary world: Santa on his throne, and toys in the window. They provide items unique to the season for us to recreate the magic at home--however we, ourselves, would like to recreate it: stockings to hang and hangers to hang them, candles, cookie cutters, ornaments. Holiday aprons and hats and socks and pajamas with mistletoe saying: "kiss me!" They put up glorious trees for us and winter wonderlands. They wrap our gifts with pretty paper and bows for us. They play that holiday music for us...in all imaginable forms. They provide us with the tastes and smells of the season: the gingerbread and eggnog...and peppermint Do you see what I'm getting at? Yes, in the end, as Cindy Lou points out, the things are not the point--but it sure helps fire the imagination. Even just window shopping, watching the kids on Santa's knee and hearing the music, gazing at the mall Xmas tree, can be the portal into the holiday.

In the end, it all comes back to whether or not we can gather together with friends and loved ones and engage in our own personal rituals of connecting. We can do this with nothing more than a song and an empty stage as Cindy Lou did, but the glitter and the glow and the fragrances help to set that mood, help to get all the friends and family in the same imaginary space. Is it commercial? Hell yeah--retail ain't doing this from the goodness of its heart and I'm by no means canonizing capitalism. But I'm not so sure it's completely outside the holiday spirit, gift-giving and decorating being a part of that spirit. Step around to the other side of that retail window and you'll see. You did a lot more for people than just selling them a paper-wrapped box of cute pajamas. You helped them get in touch with the season in whatever way worked best for them, and so, in turn, you helped them show their love to others.

I don't know if that helps, but I, for one, am grateful to retail. It'd be impossible for me to get into this season if all there was to it was a religious ritual I couldn't attend and holiday songs about the birth of a deity I didn't believe in...much as I appreciate Pele, the volcano goddess

http://www.goddess.com.au/goddesses/GoddessImages/Pele_Volcano.jpg​

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

*great big tight hugs to Abs*

Ok so virtual hugs suck but I'll give you one of my memories to add to it.

I was in one of those funks, hating christmas, stomping around going "if I could work my will, every fool that went about with 'merry christmas' on his lip would be boiled in his own pudding and bury with a stake of holly in his heart." the store I was working for had donated as complete system to a local charity. I was high enough up the food chain to be trusted to make a good appearance and not high enough to refuse the order so I was sent to go smile and nods and what not.

The group was all latinos, and I was the only gringo there. They invited me to eat with them, and through the gift of a nice young lady who translated for me and kept me from being obnoxious, I sat and listened to a great mariachi band and watched the ninos break open a pinata. The whole party was in a large cathedral's annex, and after a while I wondered off and found myself in the cathedral proper. It was empty, quiet, flickering candles about the altar. I just sat there, a stranger in a strange land and looking at all the trappings that seemed so familiar and so unusual at once.

The priest came up behind, asking me if I wanted to light a candle in broken english. I explained as best I could that I was not a member and did not know what I was doing. He smiled and touched my shoulder and said "Light a candle, is alright."

I lit a candle and went back to the party, a bit less of a scrooge.

Maybe it was the candle, maybe it was getting outside of the familiar, maybe it was the good will of that old priest. Who knows, but it was a night that to me makes christmas less plastic and more magical.

 

[Misty_Morning]

Well, for me...I had some great Christmas' a child. But then my family life callapsed and I had horrible memories of Christmas for several years.

Later in life I had gotten married and, again, I had some great Christmas'...but the my marriage failed.

I sat here trying to think of a really good Christmas memory that I had, and to be honest I couldn't come up with one.

Then I was reading another thread here about some folks "milking" the good nature of others during this time ...and I remembered.

Just before I got married, I had a really great job that paid well. I was engaged to a doctor and everything just seemed to click.

I was out doing some Christmas shopping and came upon the Salvation Army's Angel Tree.

I looked it over again again and finally decided that I would particiapte.

I chose an "angel" that only requested clothes for his younger sister, and if anything was left over he asked for a red wagon.


I pulled the card from the tree and signed up.

A week later, I wheelled into the mall a red wagon (that I and a friend had assembled), and it was filled to overflowing with individual gifts for the original angel and his sister. I had purchased clothes, toys, school items and candy for each of them. Every item was indidiually wrapped with great care and placed in the wagon. Then I took ribbon and wrapped it around the wagon and gifts.

When I wheeled the wagon into the mall, a local TV station happened to be there. They wanted to interview me and I declined.

Later that night and for a few nights thereafter, my wagon-o-gifts was shown on the news.

My name was never mentioned.



I have never been so happy to give as I was then.




I still detest recieving...but love giving.

Not everyone is thinking about "ME" during this time. And THAT's what it should all be about.


Giving.

 

[kendo1]

I'm glad I'm out of retail, now. 25 years of working Christmas Eve, one day off and back to the grind with a smile.
Spending time with my family for a change is wonderful.

Happy Ken.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I think the Christmas spirit is something that we are sold. I think the media bombards us from every direction with images that we need to have this and buy that and be a perfect family, when in fact, there is no such thing.

As a child of divorce, my Christmases growing up were rather bleak. I always missed the one parent I wasn't with, and I spent a lot of Christmases traveling in the bitter cold so I could be with the other parent for a second holiday. My parents were sad people, I think. We had no Christmas traditions and there was minimal gift-giving, not just because we were semi-poor, but because my parents didn't believe in a lot of gifts. Which I agree with, by the way, because there are far too many greedy children who expect piles of toys just because it's one day of the year.

My boyfriend also hates Christmas. It's "performance" time for them: "Ooooo ahhhh I LOVE it" to every gift or Christmas is ruined for their mother. There are so many expectations placed on us ("if you don't come over for Christmas, your grandma will be devastated"), we dream of escaping to Florida or something, and spending Christmas by ourselves, exactly how we want.

I want to reclaim Christmas. I want to take it away from the malls and the media. Even if you focus on the "giving" aspect, if you are too poor to give, you still feel like crap. Christmas makes so many people focus on what they don't have - sort of like Valentine's Day but that's another rant. I'm not a Christian and I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus. I want to reclaim Christmas as a day to have a pretty tree, see family and friends, celebrate the end of another year, and to spend time doing things I enjoy with my favorite person.

Sorry if this rant didn't make you feel better, sweet Abs. Just wanted to let you know you're not alone in disliking this time of year, and you shouldn't feel guilty because you're not filled with the so-called holiday spirit.

 

[MagicaPractica]

At this point in our lives, Christmas is much more about the family meal than anything else. It's a simple meal because there are so many traditional Polish Christmas cookies for dessert, but the slow roasted venison loin is a major part of the tradition. That and getting Dad to tell stories. We get there early and share Christmas breakfast, homemade eggnog and the traditional Polish nut roll. Then we do the present opening but that's only a small part of the day. We sit around and share this simple but incredible meal then linger over cookies and coffee for ages while we talk. That's the best part of the day to me.

 

[TE999]

IMHO Christmas is all about the children.

They still believe in Santa, and reindeer, and miracles, and happily ever after.

That magic time before reality and cynicism overtakes them.

The look in a childs eyes on Christmas morning is a joy to behold.

My parents always put up the tree after I had gone to bed so I'd be surprised Christmas morning.

We didn't have much, but it was a happy time regardless.

Finding a bike next to the tree when I was 9 is one of my fondest memories.

For just one day forget the troubles and strife and revel in the happiness of Christmas.

It's good for the soul.

 

[glynndah]

I'm having a really rough time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The Christmas decorations have been sitting in my living room, still in their storage boxes, for about two weeks now. The Christmas tree's finally on the front porch, ready to be taken inside the house and decorated.

It's supposed to snow tonight. Maybe that will help. Of course the freezing rain forecasted to follow it probably won't do my morale any good.

 

[TE999]

I'm having a really rough time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The Christmas decorations have been sitting in my living room, still in their storage boxes, for about two weeks now. The Christmas tree's finally on the front porch, ready to be taken inside the house and decorated.

It's supposed to snow tonight. Maybe that will help. Of course the freezing rain forecasted to follow it probably won't do my morale any good.

Try puttin' the tree up first and decoratin' it darlin'.

That oughta jump start your holiday spirit.

Build a fire and let the weather do it's thing.

While you drink hot cocoa.

 

[glynndah]

That's all on the agenda for tomorrow, Tom.

 

[sr71plt]

Our first Christmas in Bangkok, the artificial tree we'd ordered from Sears in the States was mistakenly sent to Bangor, Maine (who would send a fake tree to Maine?). We made do with a 4-foot Norfolk pine from our balcony (which was better than the one my mother made out of a broom handle and green crepe paper when we were in a bunker during the Hungarian uprising). We had hidden the kids' Santa's toys we'd ordered from the states behind cardboard boxes in an unused bathtub. A Guns of Navarone plastic fort set for the son and a metal doll house for the daughter--assembly required for both. After we'd gotten the kids to bed and gone to start assembling the toys, we found that fire ants had come down from the ceiling over the tub and eaten every bit of paper, decals and such--and including the assembly instructions for the toys. My wife fought the fire ants while I assembled the toys (which was the wrong way around--she's mechanical, I'm not).

As I was finishing assembly the toys as best I could, all hell broke out outside. One of the frequent Thai military coups had started with the blowing up of a defense ministry building just down our street and the preprogrammed rumbling of tanks in the streets. As we were getting the kids out of the bed and deciding what our best options were for a safehaven (my wife was losing the war of the fire ants and they were in our only interior room), the Belgian family from across the hall came knocking on our door and inviting us to the interior bathroom they had in their apartment. We dragged the scraggly Norfolk pine, sleepy-eyed kids, badly assembled toys, and a couple of bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Label across the hall, where our kids preceded to play with the toys the Belgian kids were getting for Christmas, while their kids played with the fort and doll house, and the Belgian couple swapped their French brandy for our Johnnie Walker. In short order we were in almost complete darkness as the Belgian man plugged our Norfolk pine tree lights directly into the wall socket and blew the circuit, not to mention the tree. I'd neglected to bring the transformer over, and he hadn't realized we were using American light strings.

Christmas morning, the coup was over, and our family had Belgian friends that we try to have Christmas with in every succeeding decade after the Christmas we spent together hunkered down in an interior bathroom in Bangkok--which, as it turned out, also had an infestation of the fire ants. Our kids still have the Guns of Navarone Fort and metal doll house, which, the last I knew, they drag out and put under the tree every year to the derisive comments of my son's children and daughter's husband.

 

[glynndah]

I've decided my husband's repeated playing of "Songs from Parchment Prison Chain Gang" is not helping me get into the spirit of Christmas.

 

[TE999]

I've decided my husband's repeated playing of "Songs from Parchment Prison Chain Gang" is not helping me get into the spirit of Christmas.

Is that Parchman Prison Chain Gang pretty witch?

That's in the benighted state of Mississippi--a truly nasty prison.

I used to date a girl who's father was head guard there.

And she was hot!

Talk about ridin' the ragged edge!

 

[glynndah]

Is that Parchman Prison Chain Gang pretty witch?

That's in the benighted state of Mississippi--a truly nasty prison.

I used to date a girl who's father was head guard there.

And she was hot!

Talk about ridin' the ragged edge!

Yes. Sorry about the typo. It's late. These were recorded in the 20's and 30's, I think. Horribly depressing and not at all "Christmas-y".

 

[TE999]

Yes. Sorry about the typo. It's late. These were recorded in the 20's and 30's, I think. Horribly depressing and not at all "Christmas-y".

I was wonderin' about that.

What seems to be your hubby's attraction for essentially a prisoners lament?

Put on some Mannheim Steamroller Xmas CD's and get in the proper mood.

 

[glynndah]

I was wonderin' about that.

What seems to be your hubby's attraction for essentially a prisoners lament?

Put on some Mannheim Steamroller Xmas CD's and get in the proper mood.

He's an attorney and has been mixing tapes of "crime songs" for his office for years. He got an USB turntable with the capability of burning cassette tapes onto CDs. He did all the Christmas ones yesterday, and now he's moved on to the crime songs. Most of them are fine rock 'n' roll classics: "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Jailhouse Rock", "Lincoln Park Pirates", etc., but since there's a little bit of room at the end of the CD, he's added a chain gang song as a bonus track. The head of the agency is leaving before Christmas and he wants to give him a complete set (I think there are 8 of them at the moment) as a going-away present.

 

[English Lady]

Christmas Spirit, I want everyone to have some, it's wy I write at Christmas with a special passion, Christmas is more than a season of spending, of decorations and lights it's even more than a marker of a spcial birth. It's a combination of everything that is good. It's the birth of our saviour, it is a time of giving, it's a time for celebrating, for family and friends, good food and a re-visit to childhood.

Here are some of my favourite Christmas memories.

My sister and I always used to help my Nanna put up her christmas tree with baubles as old as me and older and all the same decorations year in and year out -like special friends. Anyhow, my sister was in a grump over something and she's got Mary and joseph from the nativity scene and they are having a screaming row. We have a photo of this disagreement and it makes us laugh everytime we recall it.

Another memory involves my sister again, a little older (she was four when she made Mary and Joseph row, she was about 6 for this chirstmas) and a week or so before christmas she told my Nanna off for burning the bottom of her roast potato.

"Don't burn them for Christmas day!" she chided, funny thing was, it wasn't really burnt, just a little darker brown than the top but on Christmas day Nanna did burn the bottoms of the potatoes and my sister was aghast. There's another photo of all of us round the christmas table, with my sister pointing an accusing burnt potato on a fork at the camera.

things that bring the christmas spirit to me are fairly typical. I may do my christmas cake and christmas pudding in November but baking them gets me in the mood and now, the 70-90 gingerbread snowmen i bake every year for the church christmas fair add to that chrismas spirit,too.

Decorting the chrsitmas tree and house -we go for the tat look,here. We like things bright and sparkly and the tree groans with tinsel and lights and ornaments beause christmas is indulging our tacky side *grins*

Christmas lights -I reember as a teen admiring thel ights going over to my church youth group in th car with Dad, I remember going round town as a little girl in Grandads car to look at different christmas trees and th big nativity scene they had up in the hills and now we take my little one round in my sisters car to look at the houses covered in lights -that twinkling sparks off the christmas spirit too.

And Father Christmas. I stil believe you know, truly. I know he doesn't exsist in a coming down the chimney kind of way, but I beleive whole-heartedly in the Spirit of Santa. I'm still very child like -I go to bed late on Christas Eve and wake up early on Christmas day (every yea so far I've hadto wake my daughter up, not vice versa *L*) I love making christmas decorations and love wrapping presents. I enjoy every last little bit of Christmas,I squeeze every last festive smile out of the season it can take effort, but it's worth it.

 

[TE999]

He's an attorney and has been mixing tapes of "crime songs" for his office for years. He got an USB turntable with the capability of burning cassette tapes onto CDs. He did all the Christmas ones yesterday, and now he's moved on to the crime songs. Most of them are fine rock 'n' roll classics: "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Jailhouse Rock", "Lincoln Park Pirates", etc., but since there's a little bit of room at the end of the CD, he's added a chain gang song as a bonus track. The head of the agency is leaving before Christmas and he wants to give him a complete set (I think there are 8 of them at the moment) as a going-away present.

Don't forget "I Fought The Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four.

That's a real rocker.

 

[glynndah]

Don't forget "I Fought The Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four.

That's a real rocker.

Oh, it's on there. They all are. It's a huge collection of songs.

 

[elsol]

"Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?"

Share with me some of your Christmas memories, funny ones are best. What got you in the spirit? What was the one gift you remember most? What are your favorite parts of the holiday? the wrapping? buying? baking? drinking?

Maybe one day they will have a shot like you get for the flu only its a christmas spirit shot filled with the joy of the holiday. I'll be first in line.

Wow... people are really dishing on Christmas.

My Christmas Memory:

The year I got a big yellow Tonka truck. A very simple joy of opening up a present, and the thing inside is yours! Exactly 2 minutes later I lost the truck forever because I took the Christmas tree down by crashing into it.

Most people would say 'How bad... how mean of your mom!' etc, but those two minutes were so perfect that I give the biggest truck I can find every year to the local christmas toy drive (I'm talking $100+ trucks).

I think Christmas is one of those times that perfect moments occur for many people... so it's a shared experience though still being unique to each of us.

 

[angelicminx]

I hear little Cindy Lou Who singing that and I wonder myself. I've lost Christmas. I can make the Grinch look like Tiny Tim.
I hate Christmas and yet I miss it.
I guess what I mean is having Christmas spirit.
I've been jaded by too many years working retail and past Christmas memories that weren't happy ones.

Has it gone too commercial? too politically incorrect?
I remember when store windows were a high point of the holidays. Now they are stark and lack any essence of Christmas. I know...I decorated them. They should be magical and make you want to go inside the store and find the magic there too.
Eventually people will just coat a stick in glue, roll it in some pine needles and plop a star on top so there is more room for the many gifts they dont' really need below.

Listening to Christmas songs doesn't help either. Ever notice how some of them are really sad?

I don't even think three ghosts showing up at my house will help. Bah Humbug.

*standing here like Charlie Brown on stage*
"Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?"

Share with me some of your Christmas memories, funny ones are best. What got you in the spirit? What was the one gift you remember most? What are your favorite parts of the holiday? the wrapping? buying? baking? drinking?

Maybe one day they will have a shot like you get for the flu only its a christmas spirit shot filled with the joy of the holiday. I'll be first in line.

Each year is different for me, Abs. I can't think of a Christmas memory I want to share this early on a Saturday morning, but I am in the spirit of Christmas. I don't know if I can pinpoint the whys or hows, but I do know when it's there, and when it's not.

Those that know the story know the last two years have been hell for me, yet my Christmas Spirit seems stronger this year than last. I don't know why. I'm broke, I'm making my daughter's gifts rather than buying them, my husband may only be getting me, unwrapped with a bow, my parents are getting my daughter's handprint cast in plaster, and that's it. No one else is getting anything but the pleasure of my company, my smile and my love.

I took the children to Walmart and bought plaster animals to paint, to give as gifts to the most important adults in their lives, and that's what we've been doing every Sunday for the last 3 weeks. I've gone to Lowe's and picked up some of the kid kits for them to build and paint as well. We're having a ball making them and deciding who they are for.

We will be doing that today, instead of tomorrow, this week. This evening I'm taking my daughter, two children, my cousin and her best friend to see Southern Lights (The Christmas light display here in Lexington). My husband and I went last Saturday to a drive through Living Nativity.

My husband and I have watched at least one Christmas movie every night since they started showing them, and we can't wait for the next one. I believe in the magic of Christmas, and in Santa Claus. Maybe because I want to? Who knows. I just know I have the overwhelming feeling of peace and love, at a time when, by all rights, I should be depressed and overwhelmed with anger. I'm on the verge of losing everything, my family can't be together as they should be, my parents are in the poorest of health, my cousins fight and squabble, trying their best to outdo the others in the fight for "How can I screw you the worst", and still the feeling is there. I'm down to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soup and noodles. And still the feeling is there.

I know I 'opened my heart' just before Thanksgiving, and maybe that's the key.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Christmas suffers from the same malaise that afflicts everything in society. Nothing matters. If some miscreant puts a bullet in your brain Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day he still gets his turkey and fixins and a bag of stuff at the jail from the Salvation Army.

I know plenty of criminal kids getting the latest PlayStation for Christmas. On the other hand, my agency had its Christmas lunch yesterday. Employees were requested to bring a gift card for the junior thugs on our caseloads. No one did.