Christmas Heart smiles.

Every so often something happens, a chain of events, the result of which is just a good feeling inside that something is right in the omniverse. I call this feeling a heart smile.

I have never been one for office Christmas. There are just so many aspects that inspire drudgery. The entire Secret Santa crap, for instance...

Before I run off on a tangent rant about Secret Satan.. er Santa.. Allow a rambling digression...

I work in Major Sales in Costco. I love my job. I enjoy the people I work with. I like getting up knowing I will be working there. My cadre of co-workers is Jr., Jessie, Ashley and Chayton. We are all new hires and locals. With the Holiday Season upon us I thought buying Santa Hats would be jolly fun. Unfortunately there are a lot of really crappy ones out there. Then at the local Grocery Outlet they had little chimney stockings. So with a few guilder and some puff paint, sparkles and a loving wife with a creative streak and steady hand, I had some custom socks to hang up at work. I got a sour candy cane, just to make sure they did not think I was going soft.

With some of those 3m hooks I set up the five stockings, one for each member of the team and one for Greg, our manager. I did not make myself one as I thought that seemed a little narcissistic. The stockings where a hit even if they did take a while to get noticed in some cases...

It was fun and I had my little moment.

Imagine my surprise when Ashley came in with matching Christmas ties and a chocolate Orange for each of us. We all wore the ties for the next week. Then Chayton came in with a bag presents with Ferrero Rocher for all of us. Next Jr. had pop-corn tins. Jessica then came in with some mugs filled with fun and useful items (and gum). I was pleasantly surprised by each of my comrades. Is it any wonder I love my job?

It was just so fun, really a Christmas type feeling.. A heart smile.

Merry Christmas everyone!

That Christmas Spirit

Once upon a time, I recall, the holidays were just so much problem and hassle. Go here, get this, go there get that, did I get this for that? Should I get that for this? Is this "that"? This, this, this, that, that, that, the other thing.

Then comes those nattering nabobs of negativism. Those poisonous people who can persuasively call you to their way of thinking. "Commercialism!", "Consumarism", "Hypocritcalism"! Soon you can find yourself joining in the chorus of humbug.

Tis the season to be Jolly. There is so much more to focus on, you can forget that. It requires an inner flame to see this time for what you know to be true.

Peace on earth, requires inner peace. Goodwill towards mankind requires effort at an individual level, starting at home. You can just bleat out the phrase, meaning is paramount to be human.

Whenever the wrongheaded view of the season rears its ugly head, it is easily vanquished these days. Tina, my much wiser then I, wife is the keeper of Christmas flame. Her joy is infectious. Which is why I love her.

Merry Christmas Honey!

The choosing of the gifts.

Personally I have never understood the point of grabbing something generic to give as a gift, yet I have succumbed time and time again. In the course of my gift giving over the years I have given the bizarre and the sublime.

There is a great emotional rush when you get the right gift for the right person. It would be nice if that was much easier to select. Some kind of oracle of gifts that has a high degree of accuracy.

I have been told that I am difficult to buy gifts for, because there is a lack of things that I want. Does that puts me in the "pass-him-a-fruitcake" position? The best gifts are something someone can use. The worst gifts are something you end up getting back as a later gift.

At one point in my married life I foolishly chastised my, much wiser, wife because she had created a list of things she would have a use for, if given as gifts. Now I am left begging a list and constantly self reminded of what an ass I am for not seeing the simple beauty of said list.

I oft ponder the why's that are the ways of menfolk.

It's the most wonderful time...

We have been having yearly open house Christmas Parties for quite some time. It is quite the undertaking and takes a good week or more of preparation. We clean, sort and organize. Get small things done. Eliminate other tasks. Tempers get short and finally the day arrives and we all play host and have a good time.

As fate would have it, I needed to do some emergency plumbing in freezing weather this time around. This ended up tweaking my back, which made the rest of the chores problematic.

The guests are always the most interesting part. As people drop in we throw about introductions and things become a whirlwind. Donna and Jim were able to coordinate bringing my Mom and Pop up from Central Point. I always make sure we have the good coffee on tap for them. My neighbor who was also my High School choir teacher and his lovely wife made an appearance. With many neighbors and friends.

We stuck with some usual party fare, Potato chips and onion dip, Veggie's and Ranch. Tina made her Stollen and some German cookies that were amazingly good! We found some Jalapeño jelly and served that over cream cheese as a cracker spread. Spinach dip and Cranberry salsa rounded out the offerings. We have lots left over, making me think we over purchased.

Did I mention its cold?

Rare Event type cold! Long time residence are remarking this is like 1972!

This is the observation window at the Winchester Dam Fish ladder. That is ice (for the So Cal folks).

Feast of St. Nicklaus (Connor style)

Tina and I have adopted many of Tina's German traditions for Christmas. One of the funnest is putting your boots out on the night of Dec 5th, and getting goodies the next morning. Somehow the few years I have put a boot out, I got nothing. I guess St. Nick was afeared of the goodies acquirement of certain smells?

So amidst thecooking and baking of this particular Saturday, after Connor's Saturday night bath, with his preparing for bed, he brought his boot out. There was a bit of confusion on his part, but he has done this in the past. So when the remembrance hit he suddenly decided to write a note.

"Get the paper and pencil!" he was quite excited and insistant. Curious as to were this was heading I gathered the requested items and handed it over.

Connor began to write in ernest; "Dear Santa Claus. Would you put the candy on the boot. Connor"

Next, I was instructed to get a bottle and a rubber band. The note was then rolled up and put in the bottle with the rubber band holding it in a small scroll. Then Connor put the message bottle outside prominently on the plant stand, this will obviously attract the attention of St. Nick, whom now properly instructed, can leave the goodies in the correct location. Thereby relieving any confusion. This particular method of message delivery is a new twist on an old Police song. Or possibly a Sponge Bob episode (thank goodness he did not insist on firing it from a Cannon)

Oh, Nick left a note thanking Connor.

The next morning Ma in her kerchief and I in my cap were rustled out of bed to the delighted squeals. Prior to looking in the boots, we did have to pause and look out the window, this is very important. Please, do NOT forget to look out the window with your kids today...

Have a Blessed Advent!

Enjoy this posting from The Curt Jester! (Warning, Pro-Catholic Zone)

I really admire those who buy a Christmas Tree just before Christmas and keep it up to the Feast of the Epiphany. Those who will not listen to any Christmas carols during Advent. Those that will say have a Blessed Advent instead of Merry Christmas during the season of Advent.

But I am weak, weak I tell you. This weekend I put up my Advent Tree. Yes that is what I am calling it and just because the exact same tree will also mysteriously become my Christmas Tree I am sticking to this story. It's an Advent Tree so don't annoy me about not being fully traditional and it will not come down till after Christmatide.

Though the Nativity set will not have the Baby Jesus in it till Christmas - there are some lines I won't cross. Plus I do wish people a Blessed Advent even with the strange looks. Though more and more Protestants are starting to see the purpose of liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent.

Plus so far I have avoided firing up my Christmas playlist in iTunes. Though I almost succumb to temptation and singing along with actual Carols played in stores. With the Christmas wars upon us once again and so many stores going out of their way to avoid the C word you have to wonder why they think Christmas Music won't offend people? Where are the Kwanzaa sing-a-alongs, Solstice Songs, and bows to atheism like John Lennon's "Imagine"? Plus here in Florida shouldn't we be upset by secular songs like White Christmas and other geographically oppressive songs talking about colder climes? After all a multi-cultural society teaches you that all other cultures but those anointed by secular elites are to be neither seen or heard. We have a culture with so much tolerance that atheist and others spend all their time banning nativities and other mentions of Christmas. Well I might have an Advent Tree, but I sure as hell don't have no "Holiday Tree."

Tom Lehrer - A christmas carol

Christmas time is here, by golly,

Disapproval would be folly,

Deck the halls with hunks of holly,

Fill the cup and don't say "when."

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,

Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens,

Even though the prospect sickens,

Brother, here we go again.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,

Your fellow man you must adore,

There's time to rob him all the more

The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense'll

Send some useless old utensil,

Or a matching pen and pencil.

"Just the thing I need! How nice!"

It doesn't matter how sincere it

Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit,

Sentiment will not endear it,

What's important is the price.

Hark the Herald Tribune sings,

Advertising wondrous things.

God rest ye merry, merchants,

May you make the Yuletide pay.

Angels we have heard on high

Tell us to go out and buy!

So let the raucous sleigh bells jingle,

Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle,

Driving his reindeer across the sky.

Don't stand underneath when they fly by.

Force Christmas down their throats and Make Em Like IT!!!!!

Last year I was lamenting on the commercialization of Christmas, until Steve V. set me straight.

No reason to participate in the "War on Christmas" angst.

Godless capitalism is what it has always been: godless capitalism. It has *always* longed to maximize spending and minimize our interest in things higher than this world. The task of keeping both Christ and Mass in Christmas does not belong to American industry, but to the Faithful.

One can certainly roll one's eyes at the naked worship of Mammon. But when you do that you should take a little responsibility too and chalk stuff like TV ads up, not to evil socialist atheists engaging in some nefarious leftist War on Christmas that has nothing to do with "conservative family values" but to good solid godless capitalism that is just trying to figure out how to shake the Money Tree more efficiently in a postmodern and dechristianizing culture.

Being disappointed and perpetually vexed because exploitive corporate entities you naively associate with childhood, Christmas and mistletoe are actually exploitive corporate entities is a waste of time.

Learn to separate out what is essential to Christmas from what has, in our culture, learned to parasitically feed off Christmas and retain your joy.

G.K. Chesterton, "Comfort for Communists"

Ours, ours is the key O desolate crier,
The golden key to what ills distress you
Left without ever a God to judge you,
Lost without even Man to oppress you.

Look west, look west to the Land of Profits,
To the old gold marts, and confess it then
How greatly your great propaganda prospers
When left to the methods of Business Men.

Ah, Mammon is mightier than Marx in making
a goose-step order for godless geese,
And snobs know better than mobs to measure
Where Golf shall flourish and God shall cease.

Lift up your hearts in the wastes Slavonian,
Let no Red Sun on your wrath go down;
There are millions of very much organized atheists
In the Outer Circle of London Town.

- G.K. Chesterton, "Comfort for Communists"