What are you doing for Christmas?

It's been a long time since my last post! Boy, have I been busy!

Unfortunately, my other job has become extremely busy meaning that I have had to work away from home, work long hours taking calls into the evening! I haven't even bought my wife's Christmas present yet! And, somehow, all this rushing around for work has taken the edge off the usual excitement for Christmas.

The good news is that I finish work about 5pm Christmas Eve and can rest all the way through to 2nd January! Well, that's the plan, but somehow I don't think there will be a lot of rest.

In the UK, Argos has broadcast a good advertisement, (or 'commercial' as the US say), showing everyone running around getting absolutely frazzled with Christmas shopping and preparations. The director seems to have caught the 'spirit' of Christmas about right when I look at our shopping centres.

On the news this morning the reporter mentioned that there has been a 50% increase of the number of people working on Christmas Day. This isn't due to emergency service staff, but mainly retail staff opening their sales even earlier this year! So if you forget that present, you can nip out on Christmas morning and grab yourselves a bargain!

I remember the days when nothing was open on Christmas Day: no petrol stations, no corner shops, no pubs, and that made it a very special day as family and friends would get together and share that day with no pressures. With the secularisation of our society today, not only does Christmas go out the window, but so does family gatherings as more people are called upon to work, and others called upon to go shopping! This adds to the continued breakdown in society where family values are further eroded away.

Well, on Christmas Day I will be at church in the morning, 'cause I'm hosting the service, and then I will go home to celebrate our Saviour's birthday with my family.

Shopping??? Bah humbug!