Christmas Day

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With our family festivities done on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is available for other things.  This year, we enjoyed a community Christmas dinner in the local civic center.  Free to everyone, this meal is advertised all over town and everyone is invited.  It is a community event put on by volunteers from all over town.

The civic center, built in 1938, hosts a variety of activities from Christmas dinners to basketball games to craft markets.  The annual Christmas dinner (this is their 41st year) feeds over 700 people...including us this year.

At each place at the table were postcards that people could take with them.  They had several Bible verses written out, including one of my favorites, "Be still, and know that I am God".  And all around the gymnasium were banners about Jesus being the only reason for the season, Christ being the true gift of Christmas, and so on.

After 25 years of living in Vermont, where those who hold a belief in the Bible and of Jesus as the Son of God are really only welcome to express those beliefs at church, it was quite refreshing to see this open display of Christian outreach - especially at community sponsored event.

To round out our very relaxed Christmas Day activities, Joerg and I took turns trying out games from our youth on an Atari game console.  We found it to be just as difficult today as it was when we were...younger.  The same sluggish controls that made the game frustrating in the old days still exist in the current days.  But it was still fun to try my hand at Breakout and whatever that driving game is called!  (I wasn't very good at either of them.)

To all our family and friends, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a blessed and joy-filled New Year.










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