I’ve been taking inventory of some of the goodies I received for Christmas. Usually, on Christmas day I’m more interested in what the grandkids get under the tree than any of my presents. There is so much wrapping paper and boxes I’m mainly confused on Christmas day. I wait until things have simmered down before I take my own inventory.

This year I cleaned up with a lot of small gifts in baskets. It’s sort of like an over stuffed stocking. I had packages of gourmet coffee, various candies, cookies, and exotic dip mixes. There were books (my favorite gift), toys and games. I love all this stuff and it reminded me of the stockings stuffed with goodies when I was a kid. I liked some of the goodies in the stockings more than the other practical things like clothes. The stockings always contained candy orange slices and old-fashioned chocolate drops, which are still my favorites. It’s almost impossible to obtain the chocolate drops anymore. My spouse has to order them from the Vermont Country Store.

During this inventory, I like to sit down and look at the Christmas cards more carefully. I especially enjoy the personal notes and little newsletters describing the activities of the family during the past year. It’s interesting that many of the cards just say Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings and make no reference to Christmas or the birth of Christ. I can understand cards like that coming from an atheist but many of them come from so called Christians. I think many of these folks believe their brand of religion is the only one and they give the excuse of saying they don’t want any symbolism in worship including a cross, pictures etc. I have labeled these people as the Christian Taliban because of the narrowness in their belief. As far as I’m concerned they do more harm than good but obviously they don’t care because they just want their small cult to reach the Pearly Gates. It must be a blissful thing to know that you are absolutely right and everyone else is doomed to a an eternity of hell fire. At lease the fundamentalist Muslims just go ahead and kill us infidels and get us out of our earthly misery.

As for me, I like to look at the nativity scene on the porch. I’m sure not worshiping those little figures, but it does serve as a reminder of why we celebrate Christmas and that there was once a little baby born to a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem who would later die on the cross and be resurrected. He did that so that we might all have the promise of eternal life regardless of how we choose to worship him through our sometimes distorted and narrow views.