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WOOFIE QUESTION OF THE WEEK...
If the day before a holiday is called Christmas
Eve, is the day after, Christmas Adam?
QUOTABLE QUOTES
They
err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through
the chimney; he really enters through the heart.
- Mrs. Paul M. Ell.
What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the
past, courage for the present, hope for the
future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may
overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and
that every path may lead to peace.
-
Agnes M. Pahro
Nothing's as mean as giving a little child
something useful for Christmas.
-Kin
Hubbard
COOL THOUGHT
Dashing thru the snow in a one horse open
sleigh.
WISE WORDS
"One
of the nice things about Christmas is that you
can make people forget the past with a present"
-
Author Unknown
SHORT STORY
UNDELIVERED LETTER
-
Author Unknown
Some
years ago there lived in an English city a man
whom I shall call Fred Armstrong. He worked in
the local post office, where he was called
'dead-letter man' because he handled missives
whose addresses were faulty or hard to read. He
lived in an old house with his little wife and
even smaller daughter and tiny son.
After supper he liked to sit in his easy chair
and tell his children of his latest exploits in
delivering lost letters. He considered himself
quite a detective. There was no cloud on his
modest horizon. No cloud ---- until one sunny
morning when his little boy suddenly fell ill.
Within 48 hours the child was dead.
In his sorrow, Fred Armstrong's soul seemed to
die. The mother and their little daughter,
Marian, struggled to control their grief,
determined to make the best of it. Not so with
the father. His life was now a dead letter with
no direction. In the morning, Fred rose from his
bed and went to work like a sleep walker. He
never spoke unless spoken to and he ate his
lunch alone. He sat like a statue at the supper
table and went to bed early. Yet, his wife knew
that he lay most of the night with his eyes
open, staring at the ceiling. As the months
passed, his apathy seemed to deepen. His wife
told him that such despair was unfair to their
lost son and unfair to the living. But nothing
that she said seemed to reach him.
It was coming close upon Christmas. One bleak
afternoon at work Fred sat on his high stool and
moved a new pile of letters under the electric
lamp. On the top of the stack was an envelope
that was clearly undeliverable. In crude block
letters were penciled the words: SANTA CLAUS
NORTH POLE -- Fred started to throw it away,
when some impulse made him pause. He opened the
letter and read:
Dear Santa Claus, We are very sad in our house
this year, and I don't want you to bring me
anything. My little brother went to heaven last
spring. All I want you to do when you come to
our house is to take Brother's toys to him. I'll
leave them in the corner by the kitchen stove;
his hobby horse and train and everything. I know
he'll be lost up in heaven without them, most of
all his horse. He always liked riding it so
much. So you must take them to him, please. And,
you needn't mind leaving me anything. But, if
you could give Daddy something that would make
him like he used to be, and make him tell me
stories, I do wish you would. I heard him say to
Mommie once that only eternity could cure him.
Could you bring him some of that and I will be
your a good little girl. Love, Marian
That night Fred walked home at a faster gait. In
the winter darkness he stood in the dooryard
garden for just a moment. Then, he opened the
kitchen door. He hugged his wife and asked his
little daughter if she was ready to hear a
story.
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE...
Watching a child telling Santa Claus what they
want for Christmas...
POEM OF THE WEEK
The
Night Before Christmas
-
Clement Clarke Moore
Twas
the night before Christmas, when all through the
house Not a creature was stirring, not even a
mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with
care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be
there;
The children
were nestled all snug in their beds, While
visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had
just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on
the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang
from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore
open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on
the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the
lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little
old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a
moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by
name;
"Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and
VIXEN! On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and
BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves
that before the wild hurricane fly, When they
meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas
too.
And then, in a
twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and
pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed
all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his
clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And
he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes --
how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His
cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the
snow;
The stump of a
pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke
it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of
jelly.
He was chubby
and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed
when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon
gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a
word, but went straight to his work, And filled
all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose, And
giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a
whistle, And away they all flew like the down of
a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of
sight,
"MERRY
CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"
FOR THE CHILD IN ALL OF US
Child's View
Q. What Christmas
carol is a favorite of parents?
A. Silent Night.
Q. What do you call
a snowman in the summer?
A. A puddle!
Q. What kind of bug
hates Christmas?
A. A humbug.
Q. What did Mrs.
Claus say to Santa when she looked in the sky?
A. "Looks like rain, dear."
Tongue Twister
(read out loud)
Running reindeer romp 'round red wreaths.
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"Don't
sit down in the ruts of Life. You may get run over. Put
down the rocks and pick up possibilities. Take the road less traveled, a
road filled with hope and possibilities."