Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting.

It is happiness because we see joy in people.

It is forgetting self and finding time for others.

It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. – Thomas S. Monson

Slow down.

No, really. Slow down.

Slow down and enjoy Christmas.

Think about the spirit and joy of the season.

Feel the love and warm feelings towards loved ones and friends.

Enjoy it.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

https://youtu.be/gtM8BRF7Bd0

Probably not on your list of traditional Christmas songs, but apparently Pandora thinks it should be on mine.

This song always reminds me of the importance of dance and song when it comes to really getting something into the hearts of people.

It’s such a great version of the story of Christianity.

I danced in the morning

When the world was begun,

And I danced in the moon

And the stars and the sun,

And I came down from heaven

And I danced on the earth,

At Bethlehem

I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be,

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,

And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,

And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he

And the end:

They cut me down

And I leapt up high;

I am the life

That’ll never, never die;

I’ll live in you

If you’ll live in me –

I am the Lord

Of the Dance, said he.

As I get older I am more and more grateful for that very first Christmas gift – that God would send His Son to save me (I know me pretty well and I can’t believe He thought it was worth it).

I hope you can find a few minutes over Christmas to ponder this wonderful gift that was given for you.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. – Henri Frederic Amiel

Went to a funeral yesterday.

I was reminded once again that life is short and to make the most of today.

This quote feels like a good way to express it….

Be swift to love.

Make haste to be kind.

I especially liked the “make haste” part.

Life is short – make haste.

Fill your life up with love and kindness. Work at it like you are running out of time. You are.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.” – Viktor Frankl

We’ve been watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” at home the last couple of days as time permits.

In the movie, George Bailey is shown what life would have been like without him.

He’s shown that his life does have meaning.

Most of us won’t be shown meaning in such a dramatic fashion, but we must face this “greatest task” and find our meaning in this world.

Christmas time is a great time to ponder this in response to the great gift that God sent all those years ago.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. – Rose Kennedy

Well, it’s official, I’m another year older.

Each birthday can be used as a milestone along life’s journey. Marking the progress made and the distance yet to cover.

It’s healthy to look back and to honestly reflect on what you have and haven’t done. It’s healthy to set new milestones for the next year.

But the most important part might be to enjoy the moments along the way.

Enjoy the moment today.

Focus on what it is, not what it isn’t.

Notice the details.

Cherish the smiles and warm faces.

Feel the love shared.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

This is a great thought to remember this Christmas season.

It’s so easy to get caught up with running from place to place and buying thing after thing.

Sometimes we move so fast we don’t give ourselves a chance to be affected by the laughter and good humour of others.

There are so many reasons to smile and laugh, but we have to notice them.

We have to slow down enough to catch them from others.

This time of year it is easy to let it slip by without having letting a little joy in.

Make yourself laugh this week.

Watch that favorite Christmas movie.

Share a drink with someone.

Email a joke to a friend.

Do something to make yourself and others laugh.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/Lb9OVjlEZho

We all need a little Christmas, right this very minute.

Whatever your Christmas song or movie or ritual is to get you in the Christmas spirit – pick one and do it today.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Below is a great story that I try to share at some point during the Christmas season.

I figured it was a great follow up to yesterday’s note about being Santa.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

My grandma taught me everything about Christmas. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," jeered my sister. "Even dummies know that!"

My grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me.

"No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.

"Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobbie Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough; but all we kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn’t have a cough, and he didn’t have a coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat. I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. I didn’t see a price tag, but ten dollars ought to buy anything. I put the coat and my ten-dollar bill on the counter and pushed them toward the lady behind it.

She looked at the coat, the money, and me. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" she asked kindly. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It’s … for Bobbie. He’s in my class, and he doesn’t have a coat." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it … Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.

Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa’s helpers. Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie’s house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk.

Suddenly, Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell twice and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie. He looked down, looked around, picked up his present, took it inside and closed the door.

Forty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: Ridiculous!

Santa was alive and well … AND WE WERE ON HIS TEAM!

"Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows." – Edwin Osgood Grover

Every year people ask if the kids still believe in Santa.

I’m tempted to say “of course….and so do I!”.

This quote is a reminder that a little change in perspective and we all just might believe in Santa.

Maybe he’s not a magical elf that flies around the world delivering presents.

But maybe the point is the spirit of giving and selflessness.

A representative of that first gift that God sent all those years ago.

Instead of worrying about “believing” in Santa, maybe we could all focus on “being” Santa.

Embrace your role of delivering benevolence, love and good will to a world desperately in need of it.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. – Franz Kafka

And sometimes they come disguised as difficulties or suffering.

There is real, hard work to be done.

Whether it be relational, physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual….it is the cracking of the nuts that we should be hard at work on.

Whatever you are looking for right now – patience, discipline, insight, wisdom, experience, love, laughter – there is work to be done to get there.

God gives the opportunities to move closer to Him and each other through growth and experience. It is our part to take the steps forward.

Lucky for us, once we begin to step forward, so does God (and His steps are a lot bigger).

Make it a great day.

Jake