Merry Christmas to YOU!

Merry Christmas!!!!


This week has been beyond crazy, if you have read my last entry. Since then, Nan has gotten out of the hospital... my mom is recovering from her bout of SARS and my dad is tenaciously fighting off the same. My brother and I are looking like we lucked out (praise the LORD for reasonably healthy immune systems) but I have some, ah... female issues, that have me hopped up on advil.

No, I am not pregnant.



Anyway, its been a busy "season". On Sat I worked at the hospital, which was fine. Sunday I went to church with Jon and his family and then out to O'Gradys for lunch with Beth and Amy and Jon and the Deremers and other people. I cannot honestly remember what I did for the rest of the day... I think I went shopping? Shrug. It is pretty blurry since I have not been feeling well.

On Christmas Eve I made a brief appearance at the mall (not as Santa) to pick up sheets for my mom. I also went driving around trying to find this particular Bible (The Second Jerusalem... or the New Jerusalem... she is not sure, but she wants it leather-bound!) In the meantime, I took the chance to get myself a Christmas present - a thinline NIV old and new testament Bible. YAY! It has thin crinkling pages, which I love.

My mom and I went to church at St. Elizabeth's at 4:30. It was so packed that we had to sit in the sanctuary and have it piped in. It was strange, but I guess it gave me more of a chance to think about Christmas.






I liked the sermon that Jon's pastor gave on Sunday. It was a bit disjointed, and he is new... but I think the message was good.

He started off saying how there were three purposes to shepherds... to protect the sheep from danger, to gather them back up when they wander off, and to keep them going where they should be. I thought he was going to take this and then talk about why Christ is our Shepherd.. the analogy certainly would have fit. We are constantly in danger of being picked off... We tend to wander away... and we need someone pushing us to go where we should be.

But he went into a different direction instead, and this is where he could use the transition help... But he then talked about life's disappointments, and how they can often bring us great joy. He related teenage pregnancy (Mary) and shows how that turned out to be the best gift. He also talked about other upsets and bad things that have ultimately brought good. God works in times of despair.

It was really great to hear that message. Not to say that my life is full of upsets... its not... but over the past few years, there have certainly been big let downs. Failed relationships... trips that did not happen... losing friends... illness... There have been places I put hope which did not work out...

Yet, here I am, so incredibly blessed, with such hope and promise and things to look forward to.

The bad stuff has happened for a reason, and God has worked on my heart in those times even more so than the regular times.


And then there is Christmas and the story of Christ and the greatest letdown (Christ's death on the cross) brought the most joy and wonder.


It is a good thing to remember.





So how was the rest of Christmas? I stayed at Jon's on Christmas Eve so that I could be there for their morning festivities. I missed out on most of it because I felt so sick... but I made some of it, and got some cool presents... and then we came back to my house, where we were treated royally by my family. My mom got two bonuses this year she did not expect, so in typical mom fashion, she went NUTS on Christmas! Now I have more shoes than I can keep track of. Its ridiculous. Seriously. We then went over to the Deremers for a bit, then back here for food... Now Jon went home to pack,and I have to pack since we are leaving for Maine tomorrow! AHH!

We will be back last Sat night to get ready for our New Years Eve party on Monday evening. Woot! :) Plus I need some time to learn how to use the Heelies Jon got me. Hehehehehehehe!

I Am Legend

I am legend was awesome. So if you have not seen it, you should go. And if you have seen it, you are allowed to read on... in other words, spoiler alert!!!!!!


Do not read this unless you want to know what happens!









Okay, so you have decided you can read on...

First, a brief plot summary:

Will Smith (Dr. someone) is basically the last human alive after a cancer cure goes awry. 3 years prior to, a woman mutates a virus so that it is programmed to kill cancer (and apparently they are working on this stuff in real life). Unfortunately, the virus turns people into these hyper-aggressive zombie vampires - the "darkseekers" who get burned in the light, have little human-ness about them, and eat anything that lives and breathes. [Cool, right!?]

So Will Smith is a virologist / officer dude and he is researching a "cure" to this disease which makes humans into these mosters. He is immune for some reason.

Ready for the plot spoilers?


Okay, well, along the way, NYC is quarentined and he sends his wife and daughter off in a helicopter which is unceremoniously exploded by another wayward helicopter. Oops.

Everyone dies or turns into vampire zombies or is eaten by said vampire zombies... but he at least can go out during the day, hunt elk (well, those that are not taken by the random lions), play with his dog, and broadcast a radio signal on his mac book.

He also watches lots of movies and talked to various manniqens (sp?!) that he has posed around the places he frequents.

He also captures vampire zombie monsters and tests them to try to cure them. Awesome!

So then one day, one of the zombie vampires "learns" from him and actually almost ends up capturing him by moving the manniquen...

And here is where I break down.



Okay, little high school rugrats, the scene is heartbreaking... Will Smith has been alone for practically three years. (During which, by the way, he has gotten freakin ripped, something you could learn from!) And now here he is - his manniquen has moved, and he has no idea how. And he is having a nervous breakdown. It brought tears to my eyes - I do not know what I would do with myself if that happened to me. So he is getting really upset... and the stupid kids are LAUGHING at his breakdown. I mean sure, it was probably just that nervous uncomfortable laughter... but come on!

AND THEN HIS DOG DIES!

His only companion gives up his life to save Will Smith... and Smith actually has to kill him. The poor puppy! It made me so sad!


Anyway, the movie was awesome... I really enjoyed it, despite the sad parts and despite the scary parts.


When I got home, I talked it over a bit with my brother, and it sounds like the book is considerably different from the movie. The book has a sad ending, the movie has a yay happy ending. The puppy did not figure in nearly as much in the book as he did in the movie. The girl in the movie also did not betray the Doc like she did in the book.


I am looking forward to reading book, that is for sure...


And if I have not spoiled everything for you, you ought to go see the movie.

family circus

Things have been more or less a circus around here...


Bud (my grandfather) woke up with chest pains at 3am on Sunday.

At 3:15, Nan (my grandmother) called my mom and told her that an ambulance was on the way.

Bud was taken to the ER at Chester County hospital where they began to run tests to figure out if he had had a heart attack or not.

I spoke with my mom around 3 pm yesterday. I had no idea any of this happened, but she was on her way to work and wanted me to maybe pick up Nan around 5.

I went to Target and the mall and finished up my Christmas shopping, waiting for a call to tell me whether I was supposed to pick her up or not.

At 4:30, I went over to the hospital where they had JUST moved Bud from the ER to telemetry. When I got there, I chatted with Nan and Bud for a moment and as we were leaving, they brought his food. Bud was too weak to cut his food and get it to his mouth... so I cut, Nan fed, and then she had to help him go to the bathroom. I swear, from babe to babe... such is life.

We finally got out of there around 6 and home around 6:30. We had a pretty good dinner and Jon came over. Around 8:30, my mom left with Nan and she stayed there overnight.

I should mention that I am getting sick and had a pounding headache most of the day yesterday... so that was pleasant.


Today, I woke up with the same painful sinus headache, so I decided to stay home from school. I spent most of my day writing to companies and pleading with them to give me money to send kids to Costa Rica.

My dad was supposed to pick Nan up around 3 to take her over to visit Bud and perhaps see if Bud was to be discharged. I called my mom around 4ish to see how things were going and what was happening with Bud.

My dad answered to phone because apparently she left it at Nan's last night.

My dad then says that he is waiting for the ambulance to pick Nan up. At this point I am extremely confused because at the time I did not understand why Dad picked up the phone... or why the ambulance would have to go to the hospital to pick up Bud.

Then I get the full story: Nan passed out in the bathroom with her blood pressure extremely low. They called the Tel-Hai nurse, the nurse recommended she get checked out. Fabulous. My dad was waiting for the ambulance, my mom was to meet them at the ER. No one knew if Bud was going to be discharged or not because no one had talked to him. In the meantime, Dad had called uncle Andy and uncle Tom and told them to get their butts down to the hospital to visit Bud while everyone was taking care of Nan.

So I call Jon and told him what happened so that he can let Josh know that I will not be at the workshop tonight at lower merion because I feel like I ought to stay home in case I am needed. During that call, my brother calls.

I call Chris back... he had called Dad, who basically answered, said Nan keeps fainting and he has to go, and hung up on him... so he wanted to know what was up.

I am finally home now, because I had gone out to pick up my contacts, deposit checks, and fix my online banking account... and since then I ran the dishwasher and emptied it, then finished up laundry... and pretty soon I am going to continue cleaning. Yeah.



So really, it is like a circus. If you have a chance, say a prayer for my family!

YAY

I am going to Costa Rica!

I am going to Costa Rica!

I am going to Costa Rica!




And gosh darn it.... I am going to go my way. BRING IT!!!!!

So today is the day?

I guess today is the day... it is some sort of day, at that.


Its been icily raining all day, creating a thick coat of clear frozenness on everything outside. Rather beautiful. But you have to remember that beauty can break you, sometimes it can be just too much.




Today I was, as I said, on the war-path. I had several discussions with my absentee supervisor, and his bff, the lead teacher of our so-called school. I mean to make some changes... I just wish that freakin red tape would stop getting in the way.

What I have decided is wrong with our school is that no one is willing to admit that they have made mistakes. They were honest mistakes, made with good intentions... but now that we have seen those decisions play out, and things have gone awry, no one is willing to admit it! Basically, everyone just tries to cover it up, or find a quick fix, or add more poor decisions on top of it.

Its CRAP.

If you make a mistake, own up. Then do what you can to make it better. Everyone will be better for it. Dont just fumble around trying to put band-aids on a gaping wound.

But apparently, that is what my school likes to do.

Here we have a rather dire situation in the science dept. Two of our teachers are very overwhelmed and our students are NOT being serviced. They are getting a sub-par education.... all in the name of giving them choice. Well, if we give them the choice to take this loser class or another one, well, they still do not learn much of anything. I think at some point (failure) you have to say ya know what, we tried giving you freedom, and you couldnt step up to the plate, so now we get to choose.

But no, why would that happen?

I freakin HATE how everything in my school is supposed to be done for the kids and in the name of the kids and stuff... but its not. It just simply is not.


Look, I will put it out there that my job is cushy. And you know what that is? It is because NO ONE looks over my shoulder to make sure the kids are getting a good education. No one checks up on me EVER... that is evidenced by the fact that I can leave work and no one notices.

Granted, I like this freedom, and I am the type of person who will use the freedom to do an even better job... I own up to myself, and I am my own worst critic...

But other people are totally falling short. And the kids are losing. It is no wonder my school is so close to government take over.... its because there is little cohesiveness, and decisions are really made based on occums razor. Sure, Occum was right about a heck of a lot... but nothing is simple when it comes to kids. They are complex, and so is education... so doing the easiest thing is NOT necessarily doing the right thing... and I do not feel like we are doing the right things now.

I am so frustrated.


And I am not alone.

What is going to happen? How can I just swallow the fact that the kids are getting screwed and keep on keeping on? I dont think I can. Ultimately, I know I cannot stay at a school which is against my own philosophy, even if it is cushy and allows me complete freedom to do what I want. So do I stay and try to make changes? Do I stay and try to come to terms with the fact that no one will ever be completely satisfied with their job? Do I go? Where would I go? Would the same thing happen? How much can I accept, how much is too much?



Wish I could vent more.

warpath

I am on the war-path.

Yes, that is right, I know what I want, and I am determined to make it happen. Scary, actually, the thought of it all. I consider myself a fairly easy-going and amicable person... but there just comes a point when enough is enough and there is too much sitting and thinking instead of doing.... and that is when my motivation kicks in.


Thus, I have found myself on the war-path.


I am determined to make some things happen at my school and get past the stupid political bs that is currently preventing said things from happening. That is the plan, anyway. We will see what actually comes to pass....

work (or lack thereof)

Today I finally finished my classes. I did my final presentation in Epidemiology and turned in my last paper. Now I just have to go to class tomorrow night and Wednesday night and then I am done for a glorious few weeks. I would be celebrating tonight, but alas, no one to celebrate with. Its actually really rainy out and it would be the perfect night to go see a movie. I thought about taking myself... but i am simply not that motivated. Oh well!


Today was actually a pretty decent day... thought I have to admit that I got 0 work done. I got into work around 7 and the internet was sort of down. I left around 8 to go to the supermarket and buy dry ice. I got back and the science dept started setting up for our mini demos in the kitchen. I promptly began to play with the dry ice. Who does not love that stuff? I am telling you - it brings people together.

Suffice it to say that we did not have many students at 9 in the morning, but the teachers hung out and played til 10 and then we cleaned up.

I cannot really tell you what I did between 10 and 11... The internet was still wonky. I briefly recall some wandering and some playing with the math dept boys. Definitely no work to be had.

THEN... sigh. Then we had a department meeting. And I got really really mad.


I am not sure if I would classify myself as a passionate person... but I am passionate about certain things, and I am very passionate about teaching.

Our department meeting was ridiculous. It was a result of a conversation I had with my supervisor last week when I tried to impress upon him that things need to change as far as Biology is concerned, and it needs to change now.

So we had an hour long dept meeting hashing over the concept of splitting our courses in half and offering A and B. Part of the reason I am so incredibly frustrated with this is that I wanted to do this last year. I drew up an entire proposal, and nothing ever happened. Why did nothing ever happen? I think because my supervisor tends to write me off as a newbie and a follower.

And that pisses me off.

I brought this to him at the end of last year, with the thought that it is critical that our students are understanding this information before they take the PSSA tests. I even had a whole idea of how to make it work. But he dismissed it. Actually, that is not true, he made it seem like he would pursue it and didn't, which is far worse.

So all of a sudden it has come down from on high that we should do half credit courses. And here we are, going back to the idea of Biology A and Biology B. Honestly, I could care less about what the other science classes are going to do. Biology needs to do it, and I feel VERY strongly about it.


So after our meeting, I asked my supervisor if we could talk. We went to his office. We sat down. And then I started talking.


The first thing I said to him was Honestly, I have to tell you how incredibly frustrated I am that we are sitting here discussing something that I suggested last year. This is something we should be doing NOW, not something we should be hashing over now.

He really had nothing to say about that.

So I ranted for a little while because he needs to know that he needs to step up and be our department head and that I am extraordinarily frustrated with how the science classes are being handled this year.

I also told him he needs to figure this stuff out asap. As in, within the next few weeks.


We will see what happens.

I then outlined my proposal for how things should be handled. I think its an extremely well thought out and viable plan... with relief for everyone (including the teachers) involved... though it will admittedly put more strain on me. I admitted as much to him, but backed it up by saying that I do not care, it is what needs to happen, and it is what I am convinced is best.

He said he would take it to the higher ups.

We will see.



I have a lot I am pursuing right now between this Biology stuff and the Costa Rica trip I am trying to get approved. We will see....



Anyway, that took until about 12:30. Around that time, I was finally able to get online to change my course announcements and unveil a new lesson for the students. I answered a few emails, but did pretty much nothing else...

I then convinced some of the science ladies to accompany me back out to get more dry ice and some Christmas lights.



In the past three weeks, I have had the pleasure of getting to know the women in my dept much better. It has been such a blessing. I am very fortunate to work with smart, kind, and witty women! Our science department has 12 people in it... 4 of which are men. The rest are women about my age, and until this point, I have not made a great effort to spend time with them or get to know them...

But recently, I have found myself with more time on my hands, and it has been an absolute pleasure. Between Lauren, KC, Emily, Yassara, and Kelly, we have a really nice camaraderie going. I genuinely enjoy them and respect them as both people and teachers. Its just so nice to work with people you like.

Each one of us has a particular personality... Lauren hates people... Yassara is suspicious and guarded... Kelly is anal retentive... KC is our stressed robocop... and Emily is our rich Southern Belle. I am not sure what I am.... But I should say that I say these things fondly! Every day something amusing happens and we get a chance to talk and hang out in the Chamber of Science... I am sure we annoy the boys, but whatever. Its just really fun.

I am really happy that I have gotten to know them better.

Around 1:30 we began setting up again. This time there were more kids and we made an absolute wreck of the kitchen. Ooops. But we had a blast, and so did the kids, so I think it went okay!!!

At 3 I left and went to class... to give my presentation... which brings us full-circle.



My mom's birthday is tomorrow, so I stopped by Regal and got her a gift certificate. I figure I will treat her to dinner and a movie! :) I also stopped by Wegs and got some of their phenomenal organic chicken potstickers. They are freakin AMAZING!!!!!


Now it is 8pm... I am spent.... tomorrow I need to get down to serious business at school and do some grading and lesson creation. I also have my teachers evaluation tomorrow. Should be interesting in light of my recent scathing remarks to my dept head. :) I always do have the best timing. :P




Tomorrow is class from 6 to 8..... then out to the bar with my class and my teacher for celebratory drinks. (Probably sprite, in my case)... Wednesday school again, then out to Buca with the science girls to celebrate Lauren's emancipation. :) Then class..... THEN I AM REALLY DONE!

Jon comes home Wednesday night... Thursday school, Friday school, then his work party... Sat SLEEP and then my family's pollyanna and annual $5 car race. Just like the Wolf crew... liven a party with gambling or booze. Never a dull moment. :)



Anyway, the summary is: things are good, I am in a GREAT mood today, and I wish I could share it with you instead of just sitting here typing!

Cake!

First concert ever attended: Dave Matthews Band
Concert I hate admitting that I enjoyed: Garth Brooks
Concert worth going to despite sub-par seats: U2
Most fun concert ever attended: Barenaked Ladies
Concert I got burned at: Aerosmith
Most musically enthralling how does she do that concert: Imogen Heap
Best concert attended for the over 50 crowd: Neil Diamond
Concert I almost got trampled at: Good Charlotte
Concert I felt like I did not belong at because of who else was there: Evanescence
Best singalong with the lyrics concert: Relient K

and now...


Most surreal and random concert ever attended: CAKE!



Me, Jon, Josh, Nick, James, Lindy, Matt, and Steve went to Sewell NJ to see Cake last night. Before we left, I looked up the bands that were touring for them.

They were as follows (in order of most sucky to least sucky):

Agent Ribbons
Oakley Hall
King City
Brazilian Girls


Agent Ribbons is like a two girl folksy type band. Suck.
Oakley Hall I did not get to see, but Agent Ribbons was so bad, I have to assume that they were better than them.
King City was cool and random... they are sort of a jam band / latin influenced / vaudeville-ish in sound. Every song they played naturally invoked jazz hands and thoughts of charlie chaplan silent movies where he is running around quickly like a penguin. Right. They actually were pretty enjoyable and upbeat, but so utterly strange.
And then we come to the Brazilian Girls... who are 3 guys and 1 girl.... and German. They were electronica influenced and very, um, Eurpoean. The lead singer chick invited anyone who wanted to to come up on stage and take their clothes off and dance. This will strike you as even stranger when I tell you what the Commerce Bank Arts Centre is actually like. Anyway, two guys ran up on stage and began stripping, but they were kicked off by a bouncer dude. However, for their last song, the singer convinced the bouncers to lay off, and lots of people got on stage to dance.

My favorite dancers:
12 yr old blonde girl ~ she was getting her groove on in the way only an awkward pre-teen can
12 yr old blonde girl's mom ~ knee high flesh colored boots, a short skirt, and a looooooooooong jacket (na na na na na naaaa na na na na naaaaa na)
large chick ~ obviously enjoying herself so much that she neglected to see her shirt creeping north
napoleon dynamite wannabe ~ long sideburns, fro-ed out curly hair, short, and was dancing a cross between napoleon dynamite and Violet from a Charlie Brown Christmas
old dude ~ I am guessing late 60s, had the ex-hippie flare complete with a scraggly grizzled grey beard
midget ~ One of the shorter ones I have seen, was totally boogie-ing down with old dude


Yes folks, that was worth the price of admission.

What can I say, Cake brings people together!


So anyway, about this "Commerce Bank Arts Centre". Let me just tell you that it is a high school. Washington Township High School in NJ.... I mean, its a huge place and what not... and the cushy seats came in handy for snoozing before Cake came on.... but it was utterly bizarre. It sort of felt high school dance ish. The entrance was decorated with red and green construction paper links. They were selling snacks for $1 each. There were kids and parents there and freaks of nature. It was very eclectic and strange and enjoyable, actually.


The Cake concert itself was great. They played lots of songs I know, and I appreciated that they do not use a set list. I had no idea, however, that they are so "anti-establishment". They also gave away some trees during the concert. Yeah, trees. Shrug.

They played Opera Singer, Guitar, Short Skirt / Long Jacket, I Want To Love You Madly, and some other songs I cannot remember the names of... but I was pleased. It was really good show, and we had a lot of fun. Plus I got a t shirt.

Like most things in life, if a t shirt is available for purchase or free, I am all over it.





Today marks the first recording date of Reverb... wish us luck... especially given that 4 of us were at the concert last night, 2 of us were at PSU for the Penns concert, and we just lost a member. Woot. Should be awesome. :)

phone calls

ring ring... ring ring


me: "Hi, is Brandon there?"
Brandon: "Yeah"
me: "Hi Brandon, this is Ms. Samuels."
Brandon: "Hey..."
me: "You know, your Biology teacher? You might have forgotten since you have not done any work in my class for about a month now."
Brandon: "Yeah... (sort of laughing at my sarcasm)"
me: "So... what is going on?"
Brandon: "I don't get it."
me: "Hmm, why have you not contacted me then?"
Brandon: "Uhh, I don't know, I just don't follow it."
me: "My records show that you have not even clicked into the first lesson. You gotta look at the lessons in order to understand them."
Brandon: "Yeah....."





ring ring... ring ring

me: "Hi Mrs. X, sorry for calling you at work, but I was wondering if you had a moment to talk about your daughter"
Mrs. X: "Oh sure, no problem!"
me: "Holly has not turned anything in to me for the second marking period, and we are halfway through the marking period."
Mrs. X: "Oh, okay."
(pause)
me: "In fact, Holly has turned in one lesson.... for the entire year."
Mrs. X: "Well, actually, we are having a hard time, I blame myself for not making enough time to get on her case, but her grandparents just died last week."
me thinking: so what is her excuse since Sept???
me: "I am really sorry to hear about that, if there is anything I can do, let me know."
Mrs. X: "I will try to talk to her."




ring ring.... ring ring....

me: "Hi Mrs. Y, I am calling you today because I am very concerned about your son's progress in Biology, do you have a moment?"
Mrs. Y: "Of course!"
me: "Justin did really really well in the first marking period, he only did not turn in the project, but he got As on everything else, so it seemed like he was doing really well. However, he has not turned in a single lesson for the second marking period. Is something going on?"
(pause)
Mrs. Y: "Do you know what it is?"
me: "No idea."
Mrs. Y: "Ever since he started playing that World of Warcraft game..."

"x"-mas

My favorite season to work in the lab is Christmas season. I am not sure what it is... Its just a great feeling to be doing my thing, listening to Christmas music, knowing its cold outside and I am warm inside, its nice and dark...

I dont know, its just my favorite time to be there.

And, as I have worked about 4 times since several radio stations started playing Christmas music 24-7, I have had the opportunity to hear the same songs over and over again. Don't get me wrong... I love Christmas music... but there is one some I am really growing to hate.



Here are the lyrics:


Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer
Pullin' on the reins
Bells are ringin', children singin'
All is merry and bright
Hang your stockings and say your prayers
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He's got a bag that's filled with toys
For boys and girls again
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle,
Oh what a beautiful sight
So jump in bed and cover your head
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He doesn't care if you're rich or poor
He loves you just the same
Santa Claus knows we're all Gods children
That makes everything right
So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He'll come around when the chimes ring out
That it's Christmas morn again
Peace on earth will come to all
It we just follow the light
So lets give thanks to the lord above
That Santa Claus comes tonight!





Everyone knows this song. Why should it bother me?


Let me direct your attention to a particular lyric:

So lets give thanks to the lord above that Santa Clause comes tonight!



First of all... Santa Clause is upper-case. Lord is not.

Secondly... if Santa Clause did not care if you were rich or poor, and loved you just the same, then maybe you would have gotten wii for Christmas instead of a cardboard box. Granted, one takes more creativity... but I am pretty sure we all know which one you would choose.

Besides, isn't God the one supposed to not care about demographics?

Also... hang your stockings and say your prayers... this basically makes you logically conclude that you should be praying for loot IN your stockings!

Lastly, and most importantly, the song tells you to thank the lord for Santa!

No deep, heart-felt prayers about the birth of Christ. Not even a peep about family or love or friendship or any of the other wonderful things you could be thanking the Lord for. Nope. Thank the Lord for Santa.



This song was written in 1947 by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman. All the lyrics I can find online (which is oh-so-reputable) has only the first two verses. It seems somewhere along the line, two more verses were added for Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. Now come on! It just seems so.... wrong.

I mean, you probably know by now that I am not a raving bible-thumping evangelist. But I definitely consider it a big part of my life. And I just wonder how, in a predominantly Christian society, someone could get away with this. Plus this is not even just offensive to Christians, but I would say it is probably offensive to Muslims and Jewish!



Enough of the soapboxing...


And speaking of Judaism...


Why are there not more Hanukkah songs? I mean, it could be that we are so focused on Christmas... But like... what about in Israel? Do they have 10 different radio stations that play Hanukkah songs 24/7 all through the month of December?

If anyone could enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

Maybe it is just that Jewish people are smarter than that. I dunno.




Anyway, happy "x"-mas season. I will be looking forward to my leg of lamb for our holiday dinner. (sigh) If only my family understood the irony.