CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Monday, December 18, 2006

Yesterday I asked about family traditions at a Bible Class I’m teaching this month. Wow! There are a lot of traditions and they are not the same for each family.

One family always eats Italian food at Christmas. The fellowship hall was full but there was only one family that had this tradition. I have thought about it for awhile and I think I would like Italian food for Christmas dinner. Why not?

Several families have Mexican food on Christmas Eve. Our family has had Mexican food on Christmas Eve but not always. It is not a tradition for us.

We always have pumpkin pies and pecan pies. We always have turkey and sometimes we also have ham, but ham is not a tradition at our house. We always go to the Christmas Eve service and then our tradition is to open presents on Christmas Eve. When our children were small we opened them on Christmas morning.

Family traditions are wonderful because families are wonderful. Sometimes families are separated by great distances. I hope your family is able to be together. As I get older I see the need to get together as often as possible. I feel this way about the immediate family, distant relatives and the church family.

Do it often. You will always be glad you did.

RETURN THE STOLEN GOODS, YOU WILL FEEL BETTER

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Several years ago I committed a crime and a sin. I stole a white elephant gift I had taken to a Christmas party to be given as a gift. The person who became the possessor of the gift was a proud possessor and wanted it very much. The white elephant was a horrible picture of me. Some say it looks just like me but in my mind it is grotesque beyond belief. The person getting the white elephant picture of me had an evil scheme on her mind. She intended to take it to the church assembly the next day and have it projected on the big screen for everybody to see. Of course they would have laughed, made jokes about me and humiliated me until I would have ended up in tears.

S0, I THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR ABOUT A MINUTE AND THEN DID THE ONLY INTELLIGENT THING LEFT FOR ME TO DO—I STOLE IT BACK!

I put my white elephant gift on top of hers (my ugly picture) and picked them all up and said, “I better put these things in the car before I forget them.” When I returned from hiding the stolen goods in my car, I heard this dear sister in Christ and our host for the evening telling her husband that somebody had taken her gift. They both looked puzzled and a little annoyed but being good host they didn’t say anything.

Well, that was many years ago. Last night we had the annual white elephant Christmas party. This dear lady was there but she no longer participates in the white elephant exchange. She has never said why. She just doesn’t. Last night after all the gifts were taken from under the tree—one remained. It was that ugly picture that I had decided to return to its rightful owner. She said she was glad to get it back but she wasn’t smiling. She also said that she was going directly to the church office to have it prepared for a showing on the big screen.

Wouldn’t you think that after all these years that her heart would have mellowed a little and that she would let me off the hook and also not put the church through such a horrible thing? Well, hopefully she will get back into the game and start exchanging white elephant gifts again. Maybe she will steal my next one. I hope somebody does.

WHITE ELEPHANT CHRISTMAS PARTIES

Friday, December 15, 2006

Wheeeee! Tonight we get to go to another White Elephant Christmas party.

I detest the white elephant part of Christmas parties. I always have. It looks like I always will. It just seems so silly to me I can’t really get into the flow.

My wife’s former Sunday morning Bible class has had this kind of party for years. I always go as her guest. It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy every minute of it—all except the white elephant part.

She hasn’t been a member of that class for almost three years. But we continue to be invited and continue to go to these once a year parties. As Charlie Brown would say, “We need all the friends we can get.” It’s good to feel wanted. We enjoy the fellowship, food and fun. Everybody, except me, really gets into the white elephant thing. Not wanting to be a party pooper, I squeal, laugh, pretend disgust at an unwanted gift, and take a good gift from someone who really wants it—I’m a hypocrite all the way.

One year, when the party was in our home, an elder of the church brought an old piece of junk from a car. I got it! As soon as the party was over I went right outside to the garbage can and threw it in. I smiled with delight when the garbage truck took it away. The next year that same piece of junk showed up at our party. Everybody squealed, “Look, Clif brought that junk back.” The first giver of the gift joined in, my wife even agreed—“there it is.” I got loud. I was almost at the point of anger. “That is not it. I watched the garbage truck take it away.” I was ready to bet a million dollars. My wife put her hand on me and calmly and kindly said, “Yes, dear that is it. Paul had me get it out of the trash and return it to him.”

TOOK HER DOG, LEFT HER CHILD

Thursday, December 14, 2006

A shopping Scottsdale mom caused a buzz around here when she left her 2-year-old son asleep in her Beemer to go shopping with her purse-size pooch.

Now those valets over at Neiman-Marcus look like nice guys and they are probably intelligent enough as valets go, but come on—did she really expect them to watch her kid while she went shopping?

She entrusted her BMW, and her child to them—but not her dog.

It’s just me, but of the three, the dog is the only one I would have left in their care.

I REMEMBER

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I REMEMBER EARMUFFS. When I was a kid I lived in Oklahoma and it was cold in the winter—very cold. When you went outside your nose and ears got cold. Some kids wore scarves across their faces but I never did. But I did wear earmuffs. I remember having a pair of red ones that I especially liked.

I REMEMBER “CHRISTMAS” CANDY. I call it “Christmas” candy because that was about the only time we saw it. There were small pieces of hard candy that came in many colors. There was “ribbon” candy that was also hard and came in various colors. It was called “ribbon” candy because it looked like ribbon—not stretched out straight but folded and wavey. You can still buy this candy today but I don’t see it very often and it is usually a little on the expensive side.

I REMEMBER SEARCHING FOR JUST THE RIGHT CHRISTMAS TREE. We never, ever just went out and bought the first tree we saw. We looked at every tree on every lot in town and there were a lot of lots.

I REMEMBER RAIN, SLEET AND ICE. Do I ever! If you were walking you had to be extremely careful because the ice on the ground was very slick and you could go down hard. If you were driving you had to be careful because just the slightest pull on the steering wheel might send you sliding or spinning out of control.

I REMEMBER “MAMA.” My mother has been gone for sixty years but I still miss her. She was always there for me. When my brothers and sisters all married and left home, my mother and I were always together. We were poor but I didn’t know it at the time. I don’t remember ever wanting for anything. God knew what he was doing when he gave us mothers.

I REMEMBER MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. I had four brothers and two sisters. I am the “baby” of the family. I am the only one left. They have all gone on. Most of the time I don’t think about being the only one left. I just try to get on with living my life. But there are those days when I do think about it and those days are hard to take.

I REMEMBER HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BLESSED MY LIFE. Wow! When I get to thinking about all the people who have and are blessing my life it “blows my mind.” Wow! I don’t forget a single one. I truly am blessed.

OPINION

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Please, I beg you, click on the website I provide here and go to the Opinion Journal at the Wall Street Journal and read the opinion of Shelby Steele as he writes about the war. It is a long article and not totally unlike one lifted from his book, "White Guilt." But please, I beg you, take the time to read it. This is the best thing I have seen about the war in Iraq. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009356