NEWS
Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - Heart of the Holiday Season
It’s the heart of the Holiday season and I love it. I’m looking good! I got on my dark green shirt with my red suspenders and this really neat Santa hat that’s kind of like a beanie. There’s a curly wire that comes out of the top with a big white pom-pom on the end that bounces all around when I nod my head. I also have that “bowl full of jelly” tummy that goes with the outfit. It’s seasonally appropriate but I’ve got the feeling it’ll be on the top of my New Year’s Resolutions list again this year. Anyway, I’m in the holiday spirit from head to toe and nobody’s going to rain on my parade. Oh, there are those who try. I have a friend who told me that he wasn’t going to put up a Christmas tree this year. He said it was too much trouble and besides he was too old for Christmas. Can you believe that? His kids are grown and his wife divorced him last year. I told him to count his blessings and get with the program. He said, “What blessings?” The only ones I could think of right quick were—his kids were grown and his wife divorced him last year! He thought about it, smiled, cut down the blue spruce his wife had planted near the end of his driveway about ten years ago and dragged it into the house while he whistled “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”. I love spreading Holiday cheer.
My favorite part of the season is the time I spend in church. The evening service has always been special what with the candles and the wonderful hymns. The kids usually do a Nativity play that would warm the heart of Norman Rockwell. There’s just something about an angel dressed in her mother’s high school prom dress, wearing wings made of coat hangers, panty hose and tinsel announcing the birth of the Christ Child to a little shepherd wearing his bathrobe with a tea towel wrapped around his head and tied with a tassel usually found holding back the living room drapes that just gives me that special holiday feeling. That’s Christmas the way it should be, children—holy and otherwise. Santa and the presents are nice, but the church part, that’s the best!
I wish I could take some of that Christmas Evening Service feeling and bottle some of it up for later in the year. I get cranky sometimes and if I had a bottle of that, I could pull the cork just a little bit and take a sniff of the evergreen boughs and candle smoke and if I put my ear near, I could hear a little of “Silent Night”. My mood would have to improve, don’t you think? I’d send a few bottles over to the Middle East, they couldn’t hurt! I know most of the folks over there aren’t Christians but they know that special feeling because I’ve felt it in Jewish and in Moslem homes during their special holidays. They might not know the words to “Silent Night” or “Little Town Of Bethlehem” but they’d know the feeling. It’s too bad that we forget that Jerusalem is a holy place for all of us.
Well, Merry Christmas (with a capital M and a capital C) to my Christian friends out there and Happy Holidays to the rest of you, may your days be filled with joy and your loved ones surround you. If your loved ones aren’t able to be with you, may you be wrapped in the warmth of the memories of when they were.
I have to go now, more decorating to do. I have to find the little wreath that Casper, the faithful Kia likes to wear in his grill. When I find it, I think The Queen and I will drive around and look at the Christmas lights. As the Red Baron said to Snoopy, “Merry Christmas, my friend”.
Thought for the week—Store a memory or two for the cold time ahead.
Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.
Whittle12124@yahoo.com
My favorite part of the season is the time I spend in church. The evening service has always been special what with the candles and the wonderful hymns. The kids usually do a Nativity play that would warm the heart of Norman Rockwell. There’s just something about an angel dressed in her mother’s high school prom dress, wearing wings made of coat hangers, panty hose and tinsel announcing the birth of the Christ Child to a little shepherd wearing his bathrobe with a tea towel wrapped around his head and tied with a tassel usually found holding back the living room drapes that just gives me that special holiday feeling. That’s Christmas the way it should be, children—holy and otherwise. Santa and the presents are nice, but the church part, that’s the best!
I wish I could take some of that Christmas Evening Service feeling and bottle some of it up for later in the year. I get cranky sometimes and if I had a bottle of that, I could pull the cork just a little bit and take a sniff of the evergreen boughs and candle smoke and if I put my ear near, I could hear a little of “Silent Night”. My mood would have to improve, don’t you think? I’d send a few bottles over to the Middle East, they couldn’t hurt! I know most of the folks over there aren’t Christians but they know that special feeling because I’ve felt it in Jewish and in Moslem homes during their special holidays. They might not know the words to “Silent Night” or “Little Town Of Bethlehem” but they’d know the feeling. It’s too bad that we forget that Jerusalem is a holy place for all of us.
Well, Merry Christmas (with a capital M and a capital C) to my Christian friends out there and Happy Holidays to the rest of you, may your days be filled with joy and your loved ones surround you. If your loved ones aren’t able to be with you, may you be wrapped in the warmth of the memories of when they were.
I have to go now, more decorating to do. I have to find the little wreath that Casper, the faithful Kia likes to wear in his grill. When I find it, I think The Queen and I will drive around and look at the Christmas lights. As the Red Baron said to Snoopy, “Merry Christmas, my friend”.
Thought for the week—Store a memory or two for the cold time ahead.
Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.
Whittle12124@yahoo.com