Reflections of...Christmas!

             "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

      Reflections Of…Christmas!

                                 By Alan P. Scaglione

Tis the season to be jolly…FaLaLaLaLa - LaLaLaLa!

It’s Christmas Time!
December 1^st—and trees are going up and lights are being strung and cookies are being made!
And that all happened in our family this weekend!
Yep—our grandson Jett came over with his mom and dad and sister and… Nana made Christmas cookies with him.
Homemade—Gingerbread men and sugar cookies—that we decorated!
That was fun—oh the imagination of a 4 year old!
His cookies had angry birds and light sabers and trains!
Hmmm? Could be a reflection of what Jett spends most of his time playing with!
But hey—he’s a millennium boy!
And then, I helped my son string up Christmas lights—remembering the years I would put up our single strand of lights.
It almost made it all across the front of the house—notice I said, “almost!”
Well, my son has improved vastly on that—his string made it on every eve on the front of his house—I was impressed!
Funny thing was—oh the chances taken by the youth!
I asked him “Did you check these lights before you got up on the roof and started stringing them?”
You would think that I had asked for the secret code to the Pentagon!
He got a grin across his face and said “That probably would have been a good thing to do, huh?”
See—the old man still has a few things to teach his grasshopper!
And then finally, I get a picture of Jett standing in front of his new “REAL” Christmas Tree—that he picked out himself!
How cool! Jett got to pick out his own Christmas Tree!
They are decorating it together!
We have always had “real” trees—that tradition goes back to when I was a boy.
Our family had this Silver Tree—remember the kind that had the revolving 3 color light to reflect on the silver branches?
It was blue/red/green!
Well… my tree didn’t have that—because that wasn’t in the box I got out of a neighbor’s trash right after Christmas one year.
Nope—all that was there was 13 branches—out of 39 holes for branches—Charlie Brown didn’t have a thing on me and my tree!
I had a string of colored outdoor lights that were also in the box—so, I put them on the silver branches of the tree!
Anybody worried about a fire as I describe my yearly Christmas tradition?
I probably should have been—but, it was my Christmas.
I had to wait until the Saturday AFTER school was out to put it up, and it had to be DOWN the Saturday BEFORE school was back in.
My father was NOT big on Christmas.
But I remember promising myself “Someday—I will have a real tree, and I will have one every year—my kids will always have real!”
That’s what a 12 year old boy promises himself!
And—I kept that promise—and passed that on, along with the 13 branch silver tree story … to my children!
Oh I know—a real tree is just too much to clean after and just a waste of money,
But… for me, it’s a symbol for a little chubby kid from the poor side of town… that I was able to keep a promise!
Kind of reminds me of the first Christmas—
The Savior of the World born in a Stable—talk about a poor kid keeping a promise!
The Scripture says in Luke Chapter 2:

¹And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

 So…Remember the gift He gave— His life-- it changed the world!

 Brother “A”

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