Christmas is such an exciting endeavor and requires a bit of a change in our thought process including our home decor that once it is over we seem to experience a valley of purpose for the end of December and certainly for the first few days of the New Year. It is nearing that time to take down the Christmas Tree and I annually suggest that we place a bag over it and leave it in the corner…resplendent with ornaments and garland and all…

Now…I discovered many years ago how to keep Christmas in my heart all year long…no kidding. I have several Santa Clause figures that stay out and one that I am particularly fond of in our foyer whom I call Skinny Santa. I enjoy Christmas music throughout the year and often sing Christmas Carols under the mild protestation of MJ. The Christmas Story captivated my heart when I was just a lad in Chicago and Neva J and Dad and I sat under the humongous Christmas Tree in our house that reminded me of the house on Leave It To Beaver. There was Laughing Santa and his delightful and peculiar laugh. I thought I must be the only person with a Laughing Santa. 

We were at Tyler’s House Warming a week ago tonight and at the event’s conclusion, a loud knock called our attention to the door and who entered…Santa! I was reminded of Santa visiting our little home in Eldorado so many years ago and my certainty that he was indeed real. 

The magic of Christmas is our shared magic of life. It is with us every day and accompanies us at all times. The mystery of the manger and the glory of the Son Of God coming to earth to we poor of the land is new every morning.

John Jacob Niles composed the song; ‘I Wonder As I Wander. 

‘A girl had stepped out to the edge of a little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievably dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins…But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of song.’

‘The girl named Annie Morgan, repeated the fragment seven times in exchange for a quarter per performance, and Niles left with three lines of verse…based on this fragment, Niles composed the version of ‘I wonder as I wander.’

‘I wonder as I wander out under the sky that Jesus my Saviour did come for to die. For poor on’ry people like you and I. I wonder as I wander out under the sky.’

‘When Mary birthed Jesus, ’twas in a cow stall. With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all. But high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall, and the promise of ages it did then recall.’

‘If Jesus wanted for any wee thing, a star in the sky, or a bird on the wing, or all of God’s angels in heaven for to sing, he surely could have it, cause he was the King.’ Wikipedia