“Ho……Ho……Ho!”

WHEW!................ANOTHER one done!  Thank God for that.......and speaking of God, I got to thinking SERIOUSLY about where God fits into what Christmas seems to have become, a couple of weeks ago today,  when I was fighting traffic in Boise for yet another stressful shopping & buying season.

"Peace on earth and good will toward men"  Not only do we live in a world today where folks are trying to blow each other up, but even at Christmas time, people are out there burning holes through credit cards during the worst economy since the Great Depression.....and FIGHTING each other for parking places, and for that last available item on "Black Friday"........and it gets UGLY at times out there.

THEN, I got to thinking about how all this December madness came to BE..........."Christmas" to ME anyway, is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Now...to a simple old "bazooka shooter", that tells ME that it's HIS BIRTHDAY................not OURS....(unless of course, YOU happen to have been born on the 25th).  So WHY do we run all over the place every year in a blind panic, buying lots of stuff for EACH OTHER , when it's not even OUR birthday?

We should be giving JESUS the gifts....and those gifts should be "good behavior" from US.  All over the world....to get along with each other.......to be the "good kids" we're supposed to be.   And even if you're NOT a believer--------------------ya oughta be GOOD ANYWAY!

But we can't seem to DO much of that anywhere on this planet.  We buy tons of Christmas cards filled with beautiful lyrics that say things  that not all of us really mean......we run ourselves into debt sometimes spending money on all kinds of stuff........to show folks that we love & care about 'em........but we can't pick up a phone and call them but once or twice a year.

Not only has Christmas become over-commercialized, but TODAY we have communist factions in this country who get "offended" by the very WORD.  We're supposed to be "politically correct" now and use the terms, "happy holidays", "seasons greetings" and other crap like that, because the NON-Christians might be "OFFENDED."

I'LL "offend" 'em!"

Pinkos.

Well....when I married Donna, I instantly gained some beautiful grandkids, so ya gotta do the "Santa" thing.  It's absolutely amazing what it has become all over the country in the past few decades with all of this "gift-giving".........

Kids today have their own television sets and computers in their rooms.........they've got PILES of video games, that only serve to make "couch zombies" out of them......seems like EVERYTHING has to have batteries in them.  They don't really know how to "play"....how to be KIDS anymore...............

They have to be "entertained"............

When ol' "Zook" was a kid, on a "GOOD Christmas" ya got a baseball glove that you could play in the STREET with!  (Note the "rolled-up" cuffs on those new jeans....STYLIN' baby----STYLIN'!!)

We were OUTSIDE at every opportunity,  "entertaining OURSELVES", playing dirt-lot baseball, and other things.  NOTE:  that LAST photo was only a "posed" shot.  To actually USE the side of my dad's '55 Oldsmobile for a "back-stop" would have been SUICIDAL!

But that was the FIFTIES.............THIS is 2011.........."Grandma & Grandpa better hurry up and get over here!

I have to laugh........every year when we're up late wrapping presents, Donna takes great pains to make sure each one is "just right"...the corners are folded "just so"......and in just a few MINUTES, all is DESTROYED!

Speaking of Donna........where IS "Grandma"?............oh.....ok....SHE gets to tear one up" now!

Just.........."go for it"...................and leave all hope behind!............

Yep.  Things gave changed a BUNCH in this last half of a century!

I love our grandkids!............but you know what?.........I'd STILL go back if I could.

Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas

as in.......MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  It was THEN....and it IS NOW!