I must apologize to my family and friends who rely on this blog to keep tabs on my well being. I’ve had several folks ask me why I have not yet posted about the status of our move. To be honest, things are pretty crazy around here.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I am thankful for the opportunity to server God by acting in the Christmas musical at church. It’s just that three three-hour rehearsals a week can put a strain on your play time. I can’t even express how blessed we are to have this new apartment. It’s just that moving is tough and (as my wife can attest) I start to get grumpy after several days living with boxes in the house.

So, without further whining, here’s the latest 4-1-1.

Tammy and I are 90% settled into our new apartment. We have all the major furniture in place and most of the essentials (meaning our TV and computers, of course) are set up and on-line. The new place is all we hoped it would be. It’s bigger (for the most part) and newer and it has a garage (which still contains a chaotic tumble of boxes, bicycles, and tools, but I promised no more whining, so…)

There have been a couple of hang-ups, but as moves goes, this has been a good one. We had probably the lowest attrition rate of any of our previous six moves (Yeah, six. I know.) One of Tammy’s Dreamsicles© needs some glue and my old $10 garage sale book shelves have been demoted to garage storage shelves. Probably the biggest disappointment has been that there is no room for our dining table. Of course we’ve had dinner either in front of the TV or computers for years, so it won’t be a big adjustment.

Words can not say how grateful we are to our friends who helped us move everything in record time. There’s not enough pizza in the world to thank you guys enough!

*sigh*

Could someone please tell me when we changed the definition of democracy? I seem to remember a time when it meant majority rules, i.e. the opinion of the majority is of highest precedent.

However, sometime in the last ten years or so someone changed the definition to whiniest rules, e.g. if two atheists are louder than two million Christians then the atheists make the rules. For some odd reason, our culture has decided it is better to offend the majority in order to avoid offending the minority. Where is the logic in that?!

I tend to be a realist. I don’t take to mushy traditions or revisionist history. I am very vocal about the fact that Christ was probably not born on December 25th; that most of our Christmas traditions (including gift giving and tree decorating) are likely derived from pagan rituals (just like Halloween and the Easter bunny). I will not argue that December 25th has any historical, spiritual significance.

However, this is the season in which we observe Christ’s birth. This time of year would have no significance whatsoever if the early Christian Church had not decided to observe Christmas at this time of year. Do you really think that retailers would pull out all the stops to lure in shoppers for “Winter Solstice” or “Yule Feast”? Would there be parades and a national holy day (er… sorry… holiday) for the “Saturnalia” or the rebirth of Sol? (With all due respect to my Hebrew brethren, Hanukkah is a great celebration, but so is Yom Kippur and kids don’t get out of school for that!)

My wife posted a poignant essay on her blog. The summation of this essay is that we, as Christians, should not be surprised when secular America takes Christ out of Christmas.

We can’t blame a world that has rejected God for not doing the job WE have been called by God to do! … If you know Jesus as your Savior, it is YOU who is supposed to say “Merry Christmas”…

While I totally agree that it is not Target’s job to promote Christianity, I think it is totally retarded for anyone to celebrate the “Holiday” season devoid of Christian symbols. If you are offended by the fact that this holly-jolly, gift-giving, peace-on-earth time of year is based entirely on the birth of Christ, then you should try to get yourself elected to the Senate and propose a Constitutional Amendment outlawing Christmas. Otherwise, shut your trap and have a Merry Christmas!!