The below was written last year, the day before the big eve. We are not “home” this year but home for Christmas. We’ve been in this home for Christmas almost every year since 1992. Mr. Mean COVID kept us away for two years. it is good to be back. My sister Martha and her husband Todd Duff’s home looks like a Currier, and Ive’s scene for the big day, and the big eve like today.

There is even a skiff of snow on the ground. It’s colder than any Christmas we’ve experienced here. Yeh it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

i just finished reading today’s lead story in The Wall Street’s Journal (of all things) Art section about “The Annunciation.” It is an extremely wonderful piece of journalism about the meaning of Christmas, a meaning i can buy into…lock, stock, and barrel.

And what i wrote last year back in the Southwest corner seems so appropriate:

The fire in the hearth was really not needed. It was in the low 50’s outside, high 60’s inside. A rain storm was moving in for the weekend. The rain, the fire, the decorated and lighted tree in the corner evinced the feeling of Christmas.

Handel’s “Messiah” was playing. We read. No television. No movies. The heat was off and the interior temperature was moving lower. The fire was good.

i felt still. Quiet. The beautiful and amazing work of Handel filled the sir. The fire’s heat warmed me. i looked at the tree and thought about how this holiday thing has morphed over the years. With all the lights, commercials, decorations to the hilt, Hallmark tear jerker movies, movies upon movies, this idea of Christmas seems to be hidden behind the decorations on the tree.

Lots of folks don’t believe, don’t care about the meaning. Some question the veracity of Jesus’ birth. Some, especially the older ones, don’t believe in Santa in spite of what Francis Church wrote to Virginia.

You know what. i don’t care.

Not true.

i don’t care if people spend too much, emphasize the giving , the meals, the church services, or the decorations too much, or even the plethora of sports around and even on Christmas Day.

Sitting in my chair, that quiet, still feeling gave me hope, hope that even with all that distracting stuff, all of us would stop for just a second and hope along with me that there would be:

“…on earth peace, good will toward men.”

That is what i care about. i think that covers it.

Merry Christmas.

…and i add once more: Peace on Earth.