"That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown."

 

I'm Tearing Up Just Reading This. Listening, it's Niagara Falls, Frankie Angel

Mr. Emil Gower: [voice-over] I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father.

Giuseppe Martini: [voice-over] Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend, Mr. Bailey.

Ma Bailey: [voice-over] Help my son, George, tonight.

Bert: [voice-over] He never thinks about himself, God, that's why he's in trouble.

Ernie Bishop: [voice-over] George is a good guy. Give him a break, God.

Mary: [voice-over] I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight.

Janie Bailey: [voice-over] Please, God, something's the matter with Daddy.

Zuzu Bailey: [voice-over] Please bring Daddy back.

"All of You on the Good Earth"

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you."

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

"God Bless all of You, all of You on the Good Earth"

William Anders

We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

James Lovell

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.[5]

Frank Borman

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

The Christmas Stuff Died

Maturity or apathy. I’m not sure which. Or perhaps satiation.

Nobody in our house want stuff this Christmas.

We’re toying with a vacation at Christmastime. Or saving for a vacation after Christmastime has passed. But aside from that, nobody really seems bothered.

Of course we have a house stuffed to the gills with stuff. Not bringing any more new stuff into the house would probably be a good thing.

I did get myself two new pairs of jeans after I ripped the seat out of an old pair putting insulation in the ceiling above the laundry room. And a few things have slipped into the house for us to give each other. But nobody seems to have the energy to shop, let alone come up with a list of desires.

So maybe we give stuff away this year. Or pay extra on a few bills. Money spent on Christmas could make a car payment or two. Or three. Or pay for four months’ worth of solar panels.

I’ve thought about it. The only thing I really hope I get is that candy cane filled with Sixlets. And I can buy my own Sixlets.

We’ll see how long it lasts. Maybe moods will shift. You never know.



Nobody wants a BB gun. Nobody wants a zeppelin. And nobody wants socks or a truck that raises. Or even a football.

Maybe that’s good. Maybe we should put stuff we no longer need under the tree, and give it away come Christmas morning. Our era of acquiring stuff for the sake of stuff might be over.

Which is good, considering the consignment-store look of the house.

That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown

Bringing Christ Home

I’ve never been shy about enjoying Christmas music year-round. But now with Thanksgiving in the past, I can officially begin really enjoying my music.

First, this:



Silent Night is, of course, one of the most enduring Christmas hymns. Its simple message and melody can’t be drowned out by the clamour of the world.

And the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s video brings Christ to us by allegory as well as by the spirit. Which leads me to one of my favorite Christmas carols:



Here we have the Catlan carol, famous in the area of France where I spent half of my mission. This simple song brings the wonderful events of Bethlehem to some unnamed Catlan farm, where the humble and faithful are invited to welcome the Christ child. Not from some faraway place. But at home. Which is where Christ should be.

"Fear not!" [Drops Blanket]

"The Place You're Going to, thre's Somebody in it you Really Love. . . "

"That's What Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

"That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown."

Movies I Watched over Christmas Vacation that Made me Bawl Like a Baby

With only a little preamble, I present:

Movies I Watched over Christmas Vacation that Made me Bawl Like a Baby

Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. I have only vague recollections of watching this as a kid, and they generally circulate around the weird crescent-moon shape the characters’ pupils take on when the Rankin-Bass (and these were the Pixar folks of the 1960s and ‘70s as far as I’m concerned) characters get all squinky-eyed. I was even fully-armed with snark when the narrator donkey revealed his name was “Speiltoe,” or something to that effect. So I didn’t anticipate any strong reactions, watching this as an adult with my kids.

Wrongo.

The tears flowed like wine right after (spoilers if you haven’t seen it) Nestor’s mother died protecting him from the snowstorm and didn’t stop until, inexplicably, Nestor went back to Olaf and the horrible snowbound farm where everyone treated him nastily as a kid.

Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. This film (also starring Jimmy Stewart) always gets me, when Mr. Kreuger delivers his speech/prayer to the Christ child. I know the moment is coming and think I’m braced for it, and yet every time it comes, it’s Niagara Falls, Frankie Angel.*

It’s A Wonderful Life. Watched this film in full for the first time in my life this year. Bawled like a baby. And not at the scenes everybody thinks of. The part that gets me is when George Bailey’s daughter exclaims “Oh Daddy,” as she’s at the piano, scared as he barks at her to continue playing the Christmas carol he’d just barked at her to stop playing a few moments ago. Guess it’s the gruff dad in me saying, dammit, Jim, don’t you EVER do that to your kids. Again.

And the prayer at Martini’s bar. Kills me. Just kills me.

* I will NEVER be ashamed of my tears. This is part of my life that I live totally awake, and in a state of total amazement, per Joe Versus the Volcano. They day I stop crying at these scenes is the day I am no longer a human being.

Lessons Learned During Christmas Vacation

1. Getting away from the computer (and most news sites) is therapeutic.
2. Substituting way too much Facebook time for those news sites is ultimately quite depressing.
3. Watching “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey” and crying over it will NOT increase your man cred.
4. Having a solid knowledge of 1940s radio personalities will make watching “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” a much more enjoyable experience.
5. I have a lot of Facebook friends who are, shall we say, passionate about guns.
6. Windows 8 is not the swirling, sucking eddy of despair that some have made it out to be, though it does have its own interesting little problems.
7. Absolutely NO ONE is at work at RWMC on January 2.
8. Leaving an inverted water bottle in my spider plant at work so it would be watered appears to have worked quite well. Unless someone else was watering it the whole time.
9. The words that make up the sentence “Best BuzzFeedLongreads of 2012” make sense independently, but certainly not in that quoted configuration
10. If an astrological event such as the Leonid meteor shower and a conjunction of the full moon and the planet Jupiter occur, it WILL be cloudy.
11. Your fusspot son – who discards cheese stick wrappers everywhere and covers the floor of his bedroom with discarded toys, clothing, and assorted rubbish – will notice if you spill a tiny amount of orange paint on his carpet as you’re painting his room.
12. I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the stories at Not Always Right are either highly overdramatized or just made up. Especially those that take place in coffee shops or subway cars.
13. Thanks to Not Always Right, however, I will never write that someone “storms out” if they’re upset. Completely overused phrase.
14. The phrase “stormed out” is used so much at Not Always Right I have to wonder if the stories are edited and re-written by the same person at the site so each story conforms with the site’s accepted format. Or, conversely, that the monkeys submitting the stories are so completely in sync with the site’s style there is ne’er a variation between stories.
15. I tend to overanalyze things.
16. If your kids get an Xbox for Christmas and one of the games is the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean they will not be impressed if the only game skill you manage to master is riding the pig pell-mell through the crowd while yelling “Wooooooo hoooooo!"
17. Dropping an Oreo in a full glass of milk and splashing said liquid all over your new keyboard is an excellent way to break it in.
18. Leaving a book you’ve written aside for a few weeks but still thinking about it on the backburner makes for a better book. Or at least more crap to shove into a mediocre book.
19. Same goes for taking a stab at writing a query letter.
20. Buying our new house in Ammon was a good idea.
21. Spending the money to have natural gas heat installed in the new house in Ammon was a TREMENDOUSLY excellent idea.
22. I didn’t do as bad a job installing the new back door as I thought.
23. People who photobomb other people: I want to be your friend.

That's What Christmas is All About, Part II

"Lights, Please?"

O Tannenbaum

Lights, Please?

Funny Christmas Trees

This has been kind of an odd Christmas. First of all, we went swimming today. We froze to death, but we did indeed go swimming. I've been in colder pools -- and Bear Lake in September is certainly colder than where we swam today -- but this one was indeed of the goose-bump-raising variety. Liam's jaw was clacking as he was swimming but he said, "No, Dad, it's not cold at all." We lasted about 45 minutes.

Then they all came back inside to enjoy their Christmas presents. Lexie and Isaac played with their new dolls (no, it doesn't bother me that my six-year-old boy wants to play with dolls) and Liam read his new book. No surprise there.

For more photos, go here.

And I'll keep adding to that album, because, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, everyone in the family now has a camera for the taking of the pictures, if I can quote the inspiration for Jeff Albertson in that manner. I won't guarantee the quality of any of the photos or videos that will be produced and offered here in the next little while, but understand the enthusiasm is rampant in that department. At least since they're all digital, we won't be burning through roll after roll of film for their silliness.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

In Case You Think God Doesn't Have A Sense of Humor