Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

I think I've written Merry Christmas and said it more times this season than I have ever in my whole life. I always took that little phrase somewhat for granted, until it was obvious this year that most retailers were down playing the Christmas decorations and instructing employees to say Happy Holidays, or, in some cases, dictating that they not say anything at all!

"Then peal the bells more loud and clear, God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with Peace on Earth, Good Will toward men.""

So, to you and your family I wish you all a Christ filled Christmas!!!

SANTA .... He's EVERYWHERE!!

We have always had a lot of fun finding unusual items at Estate Sales on our Friday Date Day, but this little Santa decoration caught my eye, and the more we looked at it, the more unusual it appeared. If you click on the picture, you will see that all of the dolls in Santa's stockings have sad faces! Doesn't that seem strange to you?

So, it's not surprising that it was a Santa collector who bought him from us on eBay. I struck up a conversation with Brian, and asked him if I could share some of the pictures of his collection that he sent to me. He plans to write a book about Santa collecting, and it looks like he has plenty to write about!

Have You Put Your Christmas Decorations Away?

My mother instilled in me as long as I can remember that it was "bad luck" to leave our Christmas decorations up into the New Year. She always took hers down within a day or so after Christmas. So this was something I have never done - not that I really believe it would bring me bad luck, but it's just a good incentive to get things put back to normal. And it does help to have a deadline. Otherwise, knowing me, I would procrastinate.

Obviously, some people haven't heard about the bad luck thing, because it seems a lot of people around here leave their outside lights up year round. As hard as they must be to get up there, I can sympathize, even though I can't imagine doing it myself.

I'm curious to find out how others feel about what to do with the holiday trimmings, once the holiday is past. So ... are yours still up?????