Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? I am! The tree is up with all my beloved old and new ornaments. There’s good smells from cinnamon and pine candles throughout the house. A few gifts are even already under the tree! Scruffy has a new Christmas sweater, hot chocolate is being drunk, and Christmas cards should arrive any day! Lately,…
Tag: Christmas
A Wartime Christmas
Santa Claus in the BonTon department store lifted me onto his knee. I told him about the electric train at the top of my list. He assured me that he’d tell the elves to pack an electric train in the sleigh. He lowered me to the floor as a pet monkey gave me a comic book and a candy cane.…
Wait. Wait. He’s Coming!
We’re an impatient lot sometimes. We want faster internet. Microwaved food. Same-day delivery. Minutes. Seconds. Nanoseconds. That’s why one of my favorite characters in the “Christmas Story” is Simeon. Kind. Older. Steady. Devout. A fixture in the temple. And the Bible says he was patient. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man…
BEST. PRESENT. EVER.
Thanksgiving was and is my favorite holiday, but that’s not to say Christmas doesn’t have it’s own traditions and fond memories. From the cozy wood-burning fireplace that left us Webb kids cologned with a smoky scent, to the Christmas tree me and my Daddy would hunt and then cut down, Christmas was wonderful. We would strategically place the inevitable big…
Charlie Brown Lessons!
A Charlie Brown Christmas tree was a reality to this farm kid. We paraded through the woods until we came upon a young white pine. With luck it would have four or five branches and no more than 4 feet high. Our father constructed a tree stand out of scrap lumber. Mom had a few time-worn balls with most of…
Your Life Will Glow in the Dark
The Yeagleys have the Hallmark Channel now. Just in time for Christmas. You know what that means, don’t you? Hours upon weeks upon months of Christmas movies. The lonely find love. Broken families are fixed. Hurts are healed. Tears are dried. The cute girl always gets the handsome guy. Magic is in the air — they say. And my favorite…
Christmas at Peach Bottom
It was late October when fire reduced our barn to a heap of ashes. The landlord came from Bethesda, Maryland to tell my father that insurance did not cover his property. Only the 30 milk cows survived the flames. A temporary milking system was installed in a large shed, but hay and grain were destroyed in the inferno. Providentially a Nazarene…