My Christmas present to myself each year is to see how much air travel can open up the world and read more

My Christmas present to myself each year is to see how much air travel can open up the world and take me to places as far from sheltered California and Japan as possible.

Christmas is the Disneyfication of Christianity

Christmas is the Disneyfication of Christianity

The sun doth shake
Light from his locks, and, all the way
Breathing perfumes, doth spice the read more

The sun doth shake
Light from his locks, and, all the way
Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.

Let's dance and sing and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.

Let's dance and sing and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

What babe new born is this that in a manger cries?
Near on her lowly bed his happy mother read more

What babe new born is this that in a manger cries?
Near on her lowly bed his happy mother lies.
Oh, see the air is shaken with white and heavenly wings--
This is the Lord of all the earth, this is the King of Kings.

It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up read more

It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars,
Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain;
Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars,
Held undisturbed their ancient reign,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago.

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. read more

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.

Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace;
East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease;
read more

Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace;
East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease;
Sing the song of great joy that the angels began,
Sing the glory to God and of good-will to man!