CHRISTMAS GIFTS

"...and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." (from Matthew 2:11)

I'm a person who frequently says things like, "Christmas is not about the gifts you get", so I guess this piece may seem somewhere between hypocritical and inconsistent. Even so, in a material sense, I did get some nice gifts. It's always risky to start naming gifts you received that you liked, because if you forget to name someone's gift, they may be unhappy or upset, but I guess I'll take that risk. (Pretty much EVERY gift I received so far for Christmas was very good so I hope that statement helps remove the risk!) Back in the very early "AOL Journals" days of this blog I wrote a piece about analog television broadcasting ending in February of 2009. At that time (almost three years ago) that date seemed far off, but now it's quite close and we have all heard probably more than we'd care to about traditional over-the-air analog television broadcasting being about to come to an end. In fact, if you're reading this in the Boston area, you probably know that Channel 25 which is the Boston area's FOX station has ALREADY stopped all analog broadcasting.

We've got cable T.V. (actually "Verizon FiOS") on our living room set and my son has had a digital converter box on the set in his room for a couple of months. I've been feeling the deadline looming about my bedroom set, and so I was DELIGHTED to receive an RCA digital converter box as a present from my daughter Amy and son-in-law David! I'm also glad that my electronically and technically inclined son Jon set it all up for me and showed me how to use it.
When I DO watch TV in the bedroom, it's mostly on Channel 2, Boston's PBS station, and on FOX channel 25, so it is great to have the digital T.V. working in the bedroom!

Speaking of television, one game show we occasionally catch on the living room set is "Cash Cab" where people riding in an taxi cab in New York City are asked questions and win money. My daughter Rachel actually bought me a yellow toy Corvette, labeled it "TAXI", stuffed it with $45 worth of bills, and attached a sign which stated, "You Found The Cash Cab!" When I opened a medium-sized cardboard box and THAT was inside, I was pretty pleased! My wife Mary Ann bought me a lot of nice clothes. My son bought me the "Imus Ranch Record" which I'd been looking for in stores since September. There were many other nice presents, as well.

It's now 2:35 and I'm sitting here at the computer smelling a delicious turkey cooking. (For those who think I'm one of those guys who doesn't do any domestic stuff around the house, I've taken care of quite a bit of dishwashing; thank you!) Mary Ann made the traditional French Canadian meat stuffing that my parents made each Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that's always been my favorite part of the meal!

As great as these material gifts were, last night's church service was SUPER! My son Jon is an amazingly talented writer. I fool around with writing, but he's got twenty times the writing talent that I do. This past week, Jon wrote a slightly humorous, but very deep and thought-provoking five-page poem about Christmas. It ABSOLUTELY should be published! I really think it's something a lot of churches would enjoy having done as a reading at Christmas services. Jon's poem was the highlight of the service and got quite a round of applause! In addition, my daughters sang a duet and did a super job. And, Mary Ann lit the Advent candles AND the "Christmas candle" and shared a devotional about Christmas. (I gave a short Christmas sermon, as well.) One man who was a "second time visitor" to our church recommitted his life to Christ last night.

Yup, many of you know I don't tend to be a big Christmas person, but so far this is turning out to be the best Christmas I've had in a long, long time!