Christmas

Our Christmas days were always only just the three of us, Mom, Dad and me. No extended family. I didn't know any different and it was nice and quiet and happy. I am so blessed and thankful to have two kids and 5+ grandkids and of course, my Dad and George to celebrate Christmas with now. I am just so grateful to God for family and for His great gift to us on this day and the tears of joy I feel now reflect that I don't take this for granted. I have today. You have today.

If your Christmas is not as happy this year for so many painful reasons out there, I hope you will find the blessings that you do have. You always have something to be thankful for no matter how small. You may think, easy for me to say, and that is true compared to the struggles some of you are going through. I am sorry. May memories of Christmases past bless you and remember those memories and when you lived them are a gift from God

It can be a lonely time for some but God came to earth for you too and he died for YOU too. If you are alone, you may not have many gifts under your tree, or not a tree or even gifts at all, but you have one big gift to unwrap from God and this is a good day to unwrap that gift, the promise of Eternal Life, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." I hope we see you there. Obviously, these are my beliefs and I know some chose to believe differently. I just wanted to share with you the hopefulness that Christmas gives me and my family. May you find your hope.

When the blue faded away

I think it all started when the Blue Laws started fading to white and disappeared. Once upon a time, children, stores were not open on Sunday. You would spend the day with your family, maybe go for a ride or pop in to see other family or friends. 

This was at a time when TVs didn't have remotes and it really wasn't necessary because you only had a few channels to chose from anyway. You didn't have videos to rent, DVRs to record. The TV programming ended at midnight. You watched what was on and if you didn't like it, the TV went off and you did something else--read, play games, pursue a hobby or go outside. You called people on the phone, if your party line wasn't busy being used by someone else. If they weren't home, you couldn't leave a message. You couldn't text them. 

I remember Sunday rides--often aimlessly going wherever the road took us. The families actually gathered for family dinner on Sunday. When we were first married, we kept up this tradition for awhile visiting my parents on Sunday. 

Then stores began opening on Sunday. You had an extra day to run your errands. This provided more jobs for the workforce too. Schools began allowing sports on Sundays, theater rehearsals and any other activity. Sundays faded into another Saturday, the weekend.

While that was happening, technology was booming. Our choices for entertainment grew and grew. TV viewing went from a couple of channels to eventually 100's. We could rent movies to watch at home and even record programs on TV to watch at our convenience. Then came the internet with a whole other expansion of possibilities to entertain us. 

As things progressed, some things got left behind--the biggest one, family time. Since Sunday was an extension of Saturday, other things filled up the time. Sunday was not a leisure day any more and as that happened, families didn't get together for Sunday dinner. Families didn't visit each other any more. The day got filled up with watching kids' sports or other activities or running errands. Why would anyone sit down together to play a board game when each could do their own on their electronics? Reading and hobbies occupied less time. 

As everyday became a day when one could run to the store to purchase anything--even alcohol and movies could be called up on demand or streamed on the internet, and people could text someone at any time of day or order anything on the internet to be here the next day, we became a world of wanting things in an instance. The more convenient and easier things got, the more we want and want it now. 

What did we lose? Family. The "Cat's in the Cradle" song, all too real. 

Growing Old

And just like that layers and layers of life piled high on each other

and we had indeed 

grown old together.