christmas: A Soldier’s wish on Christmas!
- 12/24/12 10:21 PM
My father served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Like some many other young men his age, he was conscripted into the service but willingly accepted the responsibility of defending his country.
And just ike so many others in his situation, he missed his home and his family.
This was especially true at Christmastime. There were no cell phones, no Internet, no texting, no FaceBook, and no way to directly communicate with loved ones back home.
Instead, they wrote letters. In many cases, beautiful letters. And letter writing has a distinct advantage over many other forms of communication.
… (26 comments)
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christmas: Christmas is one day frozen in time
- 12/22/12 09:18 PM
As tracks that lag behind each stride.The days now passed stretch far and wide,The calendar betrays the manOn Christmas Day, a child again! (R Weisser 2012)
Christmas is a special time to me. It is the one day of the year in which the passage of time has no effect on the spirit of the celebration.
Christmas is NOT a one day event. It is an assemblage of all of the Christmases observed since the onset of reason. It is the one day of the year that it is impossible to separate from the past.
The older we get, … (13 comments)
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christmas: Christmas in Dixie!
- 12/21/12 09:53 PM
Being born and reared in Western Pennsylvania, I have a certain nostalgic ideal for what I consider to be the perfect Christmas.
The deep dark frigid winters up North tend to escalate revelry to extreme limit. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day was generally one non-stop celebration of family, friends, food and fun.
Here is the South, the celebration is more muted and sedate. And it is also brief. Southern tradition dictates that it is bad luck to have the Christmas still up on January 1.
When I retire, I hope to return to a colder climate. I enjoy … (8 comments)
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christmas: Blinded by the light and deafened by the noise: Memories of Christmases Past.
- 12/25/11 12:30 AM
As a child of the 1950’s that was reared in a very large family Christmas has a special place in my heart.
In the days before video games and smart phones, Santa brought real toys for good girls and boys, and even those of us that were on the “marginal” list were rewarded with a treasure trove of new goodies!
Every Christmas Morning started the same way: Sleepy eyed children attempting to negotiate the stairs while being blinded by the array of intense movie lights that lit up the room like the sun.
As a result, all of the old movies … (17 comments)
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christmas: Are you bored by the holidays already? Not me!
- 12/24/11 12:42 AM
In the many years that have passed since my childhood, the holiday season has consistently expanded in length, scope and complexity.
As our society moves forward, we seek to retain our traditional ties to our past while at the same time, embrace the new interpretations of what the holidays mean to us as a culture.
The annual influx of “new” activities and additional rites by nature multiplies the amount of “celebrating” in which we will participate.
It can be overwhelming at times. And of course, there is a breaking point at which one becomes so jaded by all of the hoopla … (22 comments)
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christmas: The one constant throughout life is Christmas!
- 12/18/11 01:02 AM
In an ever changing fast paced world that affects our lives in so many ways, the one constant is Christmas.
No matter how old we are and how many Christmases we have commemorated the spirit of the holiday ALWAYS takes us back to the magical times of our youth.
Christmas is a direct connection to our past that stirs the soul and warms the heart.
It is also a time to look back and remember those that are no longer with us. And even though these loved ones are no longer with us in the flesh, they live on in our … (14 comments)
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christmas: Snow on Christmas Day in Newnan Georgia? Yes it is!!!
- 12/25/10 11:07 AM
The much anticipated Christmas Day snow that was predicted for Newnan Georgia is here at last!
I have lived in the area for nearly forty years and this is the first “White Christmas” we have ever experienced.
It’s even stranger because a lot of my friends in the Northeast have told me that there is no snow on the ground in many places.
I guess it’s a numbers game. It does occasionally snow in Georgia, so it was just a matter of time before it happened on Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all!
… (29 comments)
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christmas: Merry Christmas to all from Newnan Georgia!
- 12/25/10 01:04 AM
The big day is finally here, and it's the time that we shift our emotions from anxious anticipation to the realization that “ready or not, here we are!”
Christmas Day always feels a little anticlimactic. The frenzy of preparation that crescendos through Christmas Eve is suddenly squelched as we finally get to enjoy the fruits of our pre-holiday labors!
And somewhere in the midst of the gift-opening, the family visits, and the holiday feasts comes the realization that all the time and effort leading up to the celebration was well-spent.
After the wrapping papers are discarded and the dishes are … (28 comments)
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christmas: Ready or not, Christmas is coming!
- 12/23/10 12:06 AM
Once again the big day is nigh upon us, and despite my most sincere efforts to the contrary, I have about a thousand last minute items that demand my immediate attention.
I know that the grocery store is going to be a madhouse, but it wouldn’t be Christmas without some of those very special once- a-year items. And although I do my best to exercise self-control and restraint, I always go overboard on the holiday fare!
It’s just another way that I connect with my past. When I was a child, the tables would be heaped with savory food of every … (21 comments)
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christmas: My Christmas wish to all: Peace. Love and Joy!
- 12/24/09 10:18 PM
It’s early Christmas morning in Newnan Georgia. It rained all night, which was kind of nice as we were snug and cozy inside as the torrents of water pelted the house..
Christmas Eve was a little different for us because we generally have overnight guests, but this year it was just me and the wife which was actually a very mice change. We couldn’t remember that last time we had a romantic Christmas Eve alone together!
Now is my quiet time to reflect and remember. It’s very calm and peaceful this morning. It won’t be long before my meditations will be … (26 comments)
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christmas: This is the hardest week of the year to work! But work we must because that’s what we do.
- 12/20/09 10:41 PM
It’s always extra tough to schedule work when Christmas is on a Friday. This of course means Christmas Eve is on Thursday, which translates into a very short and frenzied work week.
And the things that need to be done are often more exacerbating because a needed vendor or contact is on vacation or out of the office preparing for the holiday. It’s a game of cat and mouse between now and January 4th.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing, Since New Year’s Day falls on a Friday there are two weekend days before offices open on the following Monday! So it’s … (25 comments)
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christmas: Deck the halls and all that stuff … the home stretch has begun!
- 12/16/09 11:05 PM
Wow, December is racing along at an astonishing pace, Christmas Eve is a week from today and there’s precious little time left to complete any unfinished holiday chores.
This is also the “point of no return” for a lot of the activities and tasks that we have planned. We are at the point where if it doesn’t get done in the next day or two it will probably have to “wait until next year!”
And although we have reached the annual Christmas “event horizon,” the fact of the matter is that it’s not all that important to get every hall … (21 comments)
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christmas: Now all we need is some snow and I’ll get that Christmas Card photo I have always been wanting.
- 12/03/09 09:25 AM
Christmas is three weeks away, and I am ready for it. Every detail has been carefully planned and executed to perfection. But there is always one thing missing on Christmas in Newnan Georgia ….SNOW!
I was raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and there were plenty of times that the fluffy stuff lay on the ground on Christmas morning.
And although it has snowed in Georgia many times in the thirty-six years that I have lived here, I have never been able to capture a good snow photo with the Christmas lights aglow.
Who knows, maybe this will be the year but I’m … (19 comments)
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christmas: Christmas is here, and I'm not ready! Now what do I do?
- 12/24/08 08:38 AM
OK, the big day is finally upon us. For over a month now it's been parties, activities and general revelry but now the grim reality is upon us. Christmas is here and we suddenly realize that we have forgotten, neglected or just plain ran out of time to do all of the things that we really wanted to do this year.
Now think about it. I mean really think about it. How many days since Thanksgiving did you say to yourself "I need to do this or that" and well-intentioned as you were, you just never actually got around to doing … (23 comments)
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christmas: A Soldier's Christmas Wish ... It Hasn't Changed Over all the Years!
- 12/23/08 10:33 PM
In 1944, my father was a young airman about to experience his first Christmas away from home! The entire world was engulfed in a horrific war of epic proportions, and it was very man's duty and privilege to serve his country in battle.
But at eighteen years of age, it's hard to reconcile the precarious world of the military versus the sweet sanctuary of home. And the hard life and death responsibilities of the most serious nature don't mesh at all with soft ethereal elements of Christmas.
So when my dad wrote a long Christmas letter to his mother, he covered … (24 comments)
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christmas: Where do our personal Christmas traditions originate? Why, in our families of course!
- 12/20/08 11:11 PM
I have to admit that I love Christmas. I love everything about it, especially all of the activities surrounding the preparation for the blessed event.
I am also a firm believer in tradition, and I think that these customs are burned into our brain as children and do not change all that much over the years. My father loved Christmas, and he passed that passion on to me.
The photo at the top right was taken when my father was a child, probably around 1933-1935. Notice that there are few lights on the tree, because they were relatively expensive then and … (34 comments)
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christmas: Deck the halls and all of that other stuff too, when we get around to it!
- 12/15/08 11:01 PM
Okay, admit it! Christmas is about a week away, and you're not ready. Even if you are the best planner in the world, this is the time when the lingering doubts set in!
"What did I forget" keep playing over and over in you head. "Who did I forget" follows, as the brain carefully cogitates the upcoming festival and the associated duties.
The tasks pile up so many unread books; the chores await their place in the rotation. Randomness finally sets in as the annual game of "catch-up" is replayed in a frantic frenzy.
There is an "event horizon" that looms … (37 comments)
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christmas: I guess I really do live in a fantasy world! And what's wrong with that?
- 12/12/08 10:50 PM
Christmas is just around the corner, and the year is quickly drawing to an end. It has been an interesting and dynamic time in history, that's for sure.
We have seen many dramatic events over the past eleven and a half months, including the demise of many formerly powerful lending institutions, the escalation of gasoline prices to nearly five dollars a gallon, and an historical election of epic proportions.
But as I sit in my home, snug as a bug, and preparing for the holidays ahead, the outside world melts away, and I allow my safe enclosure to envelope me. There … (51 comments)
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christmas: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...and I'm NOT ready!
- 11/06/08 06:51 PM
Wow, it's hard to believe that it's already November. Halloween has come and gone, and the election is over, and now we are all taking a collective sigh of relief. But time waits for no man.
As I was driving through downtown Newnan yesterday, the workers were putting up the CHRISTMAS decorations. Oh my gosh! Can it possibly be time for Christmas already? Where has the year gone?
Newnan is one of those picture postcard towns that look great when all the halls are decked with boughs of holly, and I know the department stores are already in full holiday mode, … (110 comments)
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My father served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Like some many other young men his age, he was conscripted into the service but willingly accepted the responsibility of defending his country.
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