Life Goes On

My wife and I were among the thousands who were left stranded by the big blizzard in the NE. Our flight was scheduled to leave on Tuesday Dec. 28th. At bed time on Monday the flight was still scheduled. We awoke on Tuesday, packed and ready only to receive an e-mail from JetBlue that our flight had been cancelled. That began a plethora of phone calls to JetBlue trying to get arrangements made for getting back to Florida. 20-30 of those calls ended with a recorded message telling us that phone traffic was very heavy and that we should call again. The call was then terminated. Finally I was placed on hold and after 1 hour and 5 minutes got to speak with a live person. The earliest flights available, I was told, were on Saturday. We grabbed those reservations and began to make adjustments for an extended stay. We have been at our daughter, son-in-law and 4 grandkid's since December 21. We were to leave on the 28th and the other set of in-laws were to arrive on the same day. N

It has been almost a month since I last posted on my blog. A combination of busy-ness and writer's block totally derailed me. Now, as Christmas is rapidly approaching, I'm mulling some things over in my mind that I've decided to put into the blog. These are random, and in no particular order of importance. Are we perpetuating a false meaning of Christmas when we spend untold time and money on the search for and purchase of gifts for everyone we know during Christmas? Do we lose focus as to what Christmas is all about in the hectic pace of activities surrounding the season? Even though we'd like it to be true, is Jesus REALLY the reason for the season in our lives (and our churches)? Does it occur to us that most modern depictions of the Nativity scene includes the Magi (who didn't show up at the manger, but months later)? At the first Christmas, only the Christ-child got gifts. Does our current celebration of Christmas draw our attention more to the "unspeak