Wishes for a calm and Merry Christmas

Our opinion 

The busiest day for mailing, traditionally, is the Monday before Christmas. The busiest shopping day, for the past couple of years, has been Christmas Eve. So it's an understatement that this is a busy week.

It's important to remember, however, that the lines at the post offices and the cash registers wouldn't be there if it weren't for the family crowding into Bethlehem two millennia ago.

Recall the scene: Joseph, with the unfathomable humility of a man committed to a young bride pregnant with someone else's child, takes his new family to his home community for census registration. Like last-minute shoppers having to scramble for ideas when the must-have toy of the season is sold out, Joseph and Mary discover that when you don't make reservations, sometimes all the hotels are booked up.

Some versions of the Christmas story depict the innkeeper as heartless for kicking a very-pregnant woman out back to deliver her baby in a barn. But he's best regarded as helpful, if not downright kindly.

It would have been enough, after all, to have just waved off Joseph and Mary with a "no vacancy" sign. Instead, the innkeeper took pity on them and made his manger available. Historically, mangers weren't the dusty, open-air sheds depicted in modern nativity scenes; they usually were caves. Even so, neither is exactly the sort of maternity ward any of us would expect for the birth of our own child, much less the birth of the son of God.

Joseph made the best of it, and Mary delivered the baby without complications. The Bible doesn't give any details - after all, Jesus' arrival isn't as important as what he did once he got here - but clearly the baby was healthy, and Mary was able to wrap him up snugly and keep him safe and warm.

He's been returning the favor by doing the same for Christians ever since.

Religious or secular, or a little of both, the annual celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ provides an excuse for hustle and bustle and long lines, frayed tempers and overextended credit. But it also is a time for fellowship and family. After the last-minute rush is all over, just as it was on that night 2,000 years ago, it should be as it is depicted in the beloved song Silent Night: All is calm; all is bright.

After the seasonal storm, may all of us have a calm and Merry Christmas.

Christmas 2009

Christmas is a very special time of  the year.  Shopping lists, kitchen smells, children singing, Jingle Bells. Colored lights, falling snow, Fireplace, with amber glow. Trees adorned, a holly bough, Parties, friends and mistletoe. We have compiled a collection of  soothing pictures  with Christmas music to help you relax and get into the Spirit of Christmas. As well as a variety of other Christmas goodies! So click on the links below and sit back with a cup of warm cocoa  or what ever warms your soul and enjoy!  Merry Christmas from us to you!






Source:http://www.members.shaw.ca/christmastime/merry_christmas.html

My Christmas Wish For You

My Christmas wish for you, my friend
Is not a simple one
For I wish you hope and joy and peace
Days filled with warmth and sun

I wish you love and friendship too
Throughout the coming year
Lots of laughter and happiness
To fill your world with cheer

May you count your blessings, one by one
And when totaled by the lot
May you find all you've been given
To be more than what you sought
May your journeys be short, your burdens light
May your spirit never grow old
May all your clouds have silver linings
And your rainbows pots of gold

I wish this all and so much more
May all your dreams come true
May you have a Merry Christmas friend
And a happy New Year, too