Christmas 2014

There is a scene at the end of Lord of the Rings, in the "Return of the King" where Frodo says in a monologue, "how do you pick up the threads of your life, how do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand, there is no going back. There are some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold."

2014 delivered that kind of mortal wound to me. 

I, for the first time understand the pain and the damage that Frodo felt when the "ring wraith" stabbed him with the unholy blade on the mountain "Round Top."

No words, no rationalization, no time, no scar, can heal that wound or dull that kind of pain.

So, I am not doing a traditional Christmas this year. No cards, no wine baskets, no popcorn tins, that was what Lori always did.

I tried in Maryland to get down her Christmas notebook and look at who she sent gifts to in our name, and frankly the tears blurred the pages. 

So, Stephen, Victoria, and I are going to Vegas. We are going some where Mom would never, ever, have gone and every time we think of her there, we will laugh. 

Again, she would never, ever, have gone to Vegas.

So, my Christmas present to everyone this year is simple, I am following or copying Charlie Brown in his Christmas special, and it comes from Luke 2:8-14. This is the greatest gift we were ever given. I will write again in the New Year. 

" And in the region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the Angel said to them, "be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased."