"Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." ~ Dale Evans

Okay. Today is the back to work day. I hope you have dealt with your Thanksgiving food hangover by now and that we are ready to get going. Good to see you and I hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving time off. It's Monday, December 1, 2014, and I have many things swirling around this morning. We had a spectacular day last Thursday with our family. Not everyone could be there but we so much enjoyed our time together. I spent a good portion of Friday working on my Sunday Bible lesson along with the handout I do each week. I also worked on printing the first run of this year's edition of our annual Christmas card. I needed to do those things because on Saturday we did our posing for Santa photos at the professional photographer. That has become an annual occasion for us and this year they have added a second date in December. I did receive several notes of congratulations on my Santa photo being on the front page of the Sunday Conroe Courier newspaper. I appreciate it. However, I am very much aware that I am playing a character. It is that character that is the reason for the photo. Sure, I do work hard to portray him in the best way possible, but, I am certain that he is the popular one, not me. In other words, had I not been wearing the suit I would not be on the front page. I do appreciate all the compliments but I also like to keep everything in the proper perspective. I wouldn't want to wake up one morning thinking I am Santa Claus. On second thought, everyone sure does seem to like him, in fact, he's beloved by one and all, and he's also widely respected throughout the world. I'll get back to you on that one.

It seems the true British language is under assault. The purists across the pond are up in arms over what is termed as Americanisms that are creeping into their daily dialogue. I heard a couple of their high brow preservers of the King's English and they expressed how incensed they are to even consider American slang. In fact, they refused to comment on some of the Americanisms being used by the British public. Television, the internet, Facebook, Twitter, movies, you name it, and I suppose the guardians of the language are crying: The Americans are coming...the Americans are coming! Here's some of the phrases most disliked by the experts: 'my bad', 'price hike', 'you do the math', '24/7', 'it is what it is', 'touch base', to 'turn' a certain age, 'I'm good', 'heads up', and 'going forward'. There were plenty of others but that's a good sampling of what has the scholarly world all in a tizzy. They may have a few years on us but consider this example of how different the forms of speaking are: If a Londoner tells a resident of New York that she has left her child's dummy in the pram and its nappy in the boot, she will merely be greeted with a look of bewilderment. If the New Yorker then tells the London woman that she has nice pants, he may well wonder why she doesn't seem to take his remark as a compliment. (In America dummies and nappies are called pacifiers and diapers; prams and boots are called baby carriages and trunks. For Americans pants are trousers but for Britons pants are what you wear under your trousers.)

At the end of the day they will just have to live with it even if it's not their cup of tea. I made that one up. You know. Joking. I might try to sympathize with those elite language folks but they sounded so dismissive of any and all things American and they were just so grumpy about it all. No one really cares for grumpy unless it's one of the seven drawfs. I do hope you had a good week last week and now we open up our early Christmas present and find that enclosed is a Monday. We can choose to take it and do something with it or just try to survive it. I think doing something positive with it is the better choice. I know that from experience, however, I've done my fair share of the other as well. I do hope as we embark upon this month of December that we will have as our foundation the essence of the Christmas spirit, that being the coming into the world of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Take care now, you hear? And, may God add His blessings to our day. Amen.  See you next time, Lord willing. ....More later.