Christmas Day page 4

1 2 3 4

of each other, the goodness and awareness of the need for good fun, good feelings and positive experiences, permeates what we are and lasts long into the new year.

Christmas is. Surely we all have long lists of what defines Christmas, but the main event is that it exists at all and for me the realisation that people are very good, each and every person, and we need to recognise that good in them and in ourselves, as we journey through our short time as passengers on this little blue planet. The simple fact that Christmas does happen and people act the way they do, is assurance enough that things are working out.

This is my fifty-fourth Christmas, and the very first one where our family will spend the day with ourselves. We have reached the milestone where the other extended members of the family each have their commitments and we begin this

Christmas with a new tradition of our own. But, as you will well know, it will be based on the traditions of those fifty-three Christmases before. We have opened our gifts with the sounds of laughter, just as we have done since these grown men were babies and we will play games today, have a marvelous meal in the tradition of our family, complete with Christmas pudding and hot sauce, then we will play an old English card game or two and savour the time we are spending together. We will act out the behaviour that goes with this good time and it will stay with us for the rest of our lives, as we attempt each year to recapture the memories and wonders of years past and those to come.

For the rest of this day, be Merry and Gay and may all your Christmas be like this one, happy and filled with the warmth of a spirit and tradition, not at all buried in the past, but with us, making this the Merriest of Christmases yet.

	of each other, the goodness and awareness of the need for good fun, good feelings and positive experiences, permeates what we are and lasts long into the new year. Christmas is. Surely we all have long lists of what defines Christmas, but the main event is that it exists at all and for me the realisation that people are very good, each and every person, and we need to recognise that good in them and in ourselves, as we journey through our short time as passengers on this little blue planet. The simple fact that Christmas does happen and people act the way they do, is assurance enough that things are working out. This is my fifty-fourth Christmas, and the very first one where our family will spend the day with ourselves. We have reached the milestone where the other extended members of the family each have their commitments and we begin this

Christmas with a new tradition of our own. But, as you will well know, it will be based on the traditions of those fifty-three Christmases before. We have opened our gifts with the sounds of laughter, just as we have done since these grown men were babies and we will play games today, have a marvelous meal in the tradition of our family, complete with Christmas pudding and hot sauce, then we will play an old English card game or two and savour the time we are spending together. We will act out the behaviour that goes with this good time and it will stay with us for the rest of our lives, as we attempt each year to recapture the memories and wonders of years past and those to come. For the rest of this day, be Merry and Gay and may all your Christmas be like this one, happy and filled with the warmth of a spirit and tradition, not at all buried in the past, but with us, making this the Merriest of Christmases yet.