So here we are again. 2025 is in its waning days. Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday. The Christmas Tree goes up on Sunday. Hope rises in the hearts of the revelers. It is good to be in the land of the living. The mundane worries of life melt away when we see those who have significant challenges. I look around at my peer group who are 68, and I think how old they look until I look in the mirror. We live in our heads, so make the furniture comfortable. I started life with an unusual affinity for Christmas. My earliest memories of the Season are so sweet that Christmas is a lodestar for my life. Jennifer celebrated Aaron’s Birthday with us this weekend. Jennifer is a wise and kind person. I see myself in Jennifer’s history of faith and her work in the Church.

Christmas is a time to reassess. Why are we here, and where are we going. MJ and I watched a Netflix drama entitled The Beast In Me. The patriarch of a wealthy family told someone that we own nothing in this life; we are just renting our possessions. He went on to say that you realize this fact more when you become old. What a wise statement. Grasping and groveling for more earthly possessions is an exercise in futility. Do you have food, raiment, and a roof over your head…be grateful.

We are excited about our trip to see the Tennessee Brooks. It will be great fun! We have a train trip planned for January to New Orleans. This is exciting, as I find January a bit of a letdown after the Christmas Season. New Orleans may become our new Maine.

What a wonderful and terrifying, scary, exciting Train Trip life is! There is no roadmap or GPS. When I retired almost 15 years ago, I wondered if I would live a bit to enjoy the benefits. We have no crystal ball. We can not read the ending of our story as members of the human family on Earth. Sadness turns the corner into joy. Joy becomes a new challenge. Just when you think that you have it all taken care of, something new emerges. So it is time to.’ need a little Christmas just this very minute.’

MJ purchased a Nativity for one of my Christmas presents. Now we have several Nativities. I never have enough. The Gift of Christ’s Birth is unparalleled. We hold the Christmas candles high on Christmas Eve to signify our humble joy for the Gift. We are still here for another Christmas Eve! We still can unlock the Secret. No one can take our place. It has been reserved from the foundations of the world. We are sons and daughters of a magnificent plan. We perform on a Pristine Stage of Life. We want to play our part well. We have studied our lines and know when to enter stage left and deliver our part. The lights are going up and the curtain is rising. Time to follow the Star…