Late in the evening on December 24, 1963, I was supposed to be snuggled up in my bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. Well, not really; I had no idea what such things were. Nonetheless, my brother and I were standing at the large, old, single-pane…
As everyone knows—and especially those reading this blog post—we have entered the digital age. I read a statistic the other day stating that 46% of smartphone users spend 5-6 hours per day on their device; 11% spend 7 hours or more! And that doesn’t include work-related smartphone use! That’s incredible….
What was your first clue this year that Christmas is coming? Pop into Walmart a week or so before Halloween and discover a bunch of strategically placed Christmas decorations? Or maybe you have children at home, and they let you know? I don’t get to stores much, so I don’t…
This past Saturday found me caught up in the mayhem that is the modern Christmas season. I needed to run to Walmart to get a couple of items—just 2! Of all things, can you imagine it, we ran out of coffee…in the Bice household? That’s another story. For reasons I’ll…
Last week we had the joy of welcoming grandchild #5 into the world and to our family. Apparently, Zakkai Patton had been listening to the news and put off his entrance as long as possible (he was almost two weeks “overdue”). Can’t say I blame him. Nevertheless, December 1 becomes…
“Here we are as in olden days…” Are we? In many ways, we are. Christmas rolls around again as it has for centuries. Hasn’t always been so universally celebrated; nevertheless, no one alive in the western hemisphere remembers when it wasn’t celebrated. The other night, we went for a Christmas…
For some reason, Santa was very late for my fifth Christmas. It’s not that there was too much snow; it seems it was one of those “green Christmases” in north-central Ohio, as I recall. Maybe it was because there wasn’t enough snow? Perhaps it was because I stayed up too…
Maybe it’s just a year of mounting frustration due to everything 2020 has thrown us, from COVID to politics, but the other day I came across a most distressing example of Christmas entitlement and its sad consequence. Three or four times in the past seven years during the Christmas season,…
Somewhere along the way, certainly in the last century, someone decided to add a sub-genre of music to the “Christmas/Holiday” category. It might be called “romance” or “love songs” or something like that. I won’t try to prove it statistically, but my hunch is that most new Christmas (or Holiday)…
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together and everything goes off without a hitch—no hiccups, snafus, or unexpected “surprises”? I mean, you work hard to put a plan together, coordinate all the pieces, making sure each one functions properly, and then launch time comes. Like a well-oiled machine,…
