I’ve decided, as you all probably already know, with as busy as everyone is, especially this particular dragon, that there won’t be an episode published this Thursday and instead, I’ll use what little time I have to put together a special issue…this one…for Saturday, or possibly even Sunday…Depending on when you are reading this.

And I wrote that above many days ago and since then have gotten many things done FOR this issue, but not ON this issue.  I have gone through over 200 emails at the impishdragon@dragonlaffs.com email address, I have downloaded and sorted so many pictures that I’m sure I’ve lost count.

Plus I’ve done the normal gone to work, wrapped presents, done my grief group, and my jail ministry.  I have an eye doctor appointment this afternoon and have been invited to a special “Longest Night” church service at a friend’s church tonight for grieving people and people who don’t like the holidays because of  having lost someone or being alone for the holidays or something like that.  I think I’m going to go for two reasons.  The first is that I have lost someone and I don’t care for the holidays.  I think I may have mentioned to you guys before that if it wasn’t for my dear Izzy Dragon I wouldn’t celebrate ANY holiday.  At least not in the traditional sense.  And the second reason is that I am a grief counselor and perhaps I can either help or learn something.

Speaking of celebrating Christmas, I don’t want to give you guys the wrong idea.  For the first time, ever and I mean about EVER, I sent out Christmas cards this year.  And I felt led to do so.  Mary often sent out cards, but I never did.  Maybe to my dad and to my kids and my brothers and that was it.  And not always them.  But this year, I had a whole list.  And it wasn’t just signing my name to a card.  I wrote an individual message to each person in every card. 

Why did I do that? 

I don’t do that.

Stephanie wrote a lovely message in the comments section and it goes like this:

Let’s start out with Stephen’s latest wood carving.  Here’s his description:

This little gnome is about 5″ high and 2.5″ across.  

The glasses are made from 18 gauge copper wire.

I think he’s adorable!  A true classic.  You are quite the artist Stephen.

I gotta go to DQ and get me one of those!

That’s gotta be the Canadian version

Why The Heck … Does Green River, Wyoming, Have An Intergalactic Spaceport?

It is a good little article, and at the bottom there is a bunch more “Why the heck…” articles about Wyoming.  Check it out right here:https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/11/12/why-the-heck-does-green-river-wyoming-have-an-intergalactic-spaceport/?fbclid=IwAR3Jn-AWpP_d42qlpGon4NwiUCDjaQxjMzY77TfIDaqSqWxjB5D8CHV9lqo

And here’s another funny link sent in by Stephanie.  I wish there was a way for me to play it for you here, but you have to click on it.  Trust me, it’s worth it.  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1349375572658728

This one definitely deserves this tag.  I know that I’ve ran this before, but it’s been a long time, so it might be new to some of you.  Regardless, it is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.

I laughed the whole time I read this.   Here’s your sign…

DEER HUNTERS. 

(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this)

        I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.  The first step in this adventure was getting a deer.  I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

       I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back.  They were not having any of it.  After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up– 3 of them.  I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope.  The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.

      The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away.  I put a little tension on the rope, and then received an education.  The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED.  The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity.  A deer– no Chance.  That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled.  There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it.  As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.  The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up.  It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison.  I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

     I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer.  At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.  Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer’s momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn’t want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder – a little trap I had set before hand…kind of like a squeeze chute.  I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

     Did you know that deer bite?  They do!  I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ….. I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.  Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go.  A deer bites you and shakes its head–almost like a big dog.  They bite HARD and it hurts.

    The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly.  I tried screaming and shaking instead.  My method was ineffective.

    It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds.  I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

   That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

    Deer will strike at you with their front feet.  They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp… I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse –strikes at you with their hooves and you can’t get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal.  This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

   This was not a horse.  This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work.  In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy.  I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

    Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave.  I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed.  What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

    I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.  So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope……to sort of even the odds!!

   All these events are true so help me God…An Educated Farmer

I know, it’s on a lot of Christmas wish lists every year.  But there are only so many of us to go around.

This one is from and for Leah

We really do need to remember the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines over the holidays.  You have no idea how many of them are away from home right now.  It’s tough.  Been there, done that, as I know many of you have, too.  Stop and say a little prayer for them for God’s comfort and blessing.  And yeah, Leah, I’m not a Country music fan, but a song like this is probably best song this way.

Okay, this one is too funny.  YOU HAVE GOT TO CLICK ON THIS LINK AND WATCH THIS VERY SHORT VIDEO.  It is perfect for this time of year.   https://www.facebook.com/share/r/mpXhFQtYo46PTjph/?mibextid=D5vuiz

No thanks, malls.  
I shop from home, without pants, like a normal person.

Just because it’s adorable!

Here’s a great little story from Lynn called: 

How “Rudolph” Came To Be

“As the holiday season of 1938 came to Chicago, Bob May wasn’t feeling much comfort or joy. A 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward, May was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden, on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. This left Bob to look after their four-year old-daughter, Barbara.

One night, Barbara asked her father, “Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else’s mommy?”

As he struggled to answer his daughter’s question, Bob remembered the pain of his own childhood. A small, sickly boy, he was constantly picked on and called names. But he wanted to give his daughter hope, and show her that being different was nothing to be ashamed of. More than that, he wanted her to know that he loved her and would always take care of her.

So he began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As he did, it grew more elaborate. Because he couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, Bob decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book.

In early December, Bob’s wife died. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His co-workers encouraged him to share the story he’d written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation.

Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, they gave away six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country was making offers to obtain the book.

In an incredible display of good will, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob May. Four years later, Rudolph had made him into a millionaire.

Now remarried with a growing family, May felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed.

Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. The cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with “Here Comes Santa Claus” a few years before. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina. She was so touched by the line “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” that she insisted her husband record the tune.   

Within a few years, it had become the second best-selling Christmas song ever, right behind “White Christmas.” Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards and even a Ringling Bros. circus act.

The little red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees and presents. As the last line of the song says, “He’ll go down in history.” 🎵

There is so much truth to that.  I know that I am so very thankful for all that I have.  My life is so very hard right now.  But I am blessed with so much.  Not the least of which are so wonderful friends like you guys.

Now, here’s some trivia from Lynn.

‘A SHOT OF WHISKEY’ – In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost 12 cents, so did a glass of whiskey. If a cowhand was low on cash, he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. This became known as a “shot” of whiskey

 BUYING THE FARM – This is synonymous with dying. During WW1 soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000. This was about the price of an average farm so if you died you “bought the farm” for your survivors.
   
  IRON CLAD CONTRACT – This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken.
   
  RIFF RAFF – The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts was called a “riff” and this transposed into riff-raft, meaning low class.
   
  COBWEB – The Old English word for “spider” was “cob”.
   
  SHIP STATE ROOMS – Traveling by steamboat was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called staterooms.
  
  SLEEP TIGHT- Early beds were made with a wooden frame. Ropes were tied across the frame in a crisscross pattern. A straw mattress was then put on top of the ropes. Over time the ropes stretched, causing the bed to sag. The owner would then tighten the ropes to get a better night’s sleep.
 

 SHOWBOAT – These were floating theaters built on a barge that was pushed by a steamboat. These played small towns along the Mississippi River. Unlike the boat shown in the movie “Showboat”, these did not have an engine. They were gaudy and attention grabbing which is why we say someone who is being the life of the party is “showboating”.
    
   OVER A BARREL – In the days before CPR, a drowning victim would be placed face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in an effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you are over a barrel, you are in deep trouble.
   
  BARGE IN – Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in large barges pushed by steamboats. These were hard to control and would sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they “barged in”.
    
   HOGWASH – Steamboats carried both people and animals. Since pigs smelled so bad they would be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth that was washed off were considered useless “hog wash”.
   
  CURFEW – The word “curfew” comes from the French phrase “couvre-feu”, which means “cover the fire”. It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps and candles. It was later adopted into Middle English as “curfeu” which later became the modern “curfew”. In the early American colonies homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the center of the room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called-a “curfew”.
   
  BARRELS OF OIL – When the first oil wells were drilled, there was no provision for storing the liquid so they used water barrels. That is why, to this day, we speak of barrels of oil rather than gallons.
    
   HOT OFF THE PRESS – As the paper goes through the rotary printing press friction causes it to heat up Therefore, if you grab the paper right off the press, it’s hot. The expression means to get immediate information.

Here’s another great little story from Lynn

This is a wonderful, true story and you will be pleased that you read it, and I believe you will pass it on.  It is an important piece of American history.

 It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

 Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp.

 Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

 Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’

 In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave.

 He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.

 When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away.

And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

 If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

 To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty.

They can seem altogether unimportant … Maybe even a lot of nonsense.

 Old folks often do strange things,

At least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.

 Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida. That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.

 His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

 Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.

 The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…

 Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.

It was a seagull!

 Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it – a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait . . . And the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

 Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull… And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude..

 Reference: (Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp..221, 225-226)

 PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was a race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America ‘s first ace.. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

More truth.  Think about the things you’d really like to have…how many of them can you go out and buy?  Not many.

And this one is from Aussie Pete

The Cop and the Fight

A police officer was on patrol at night and saw two men fighting in the middle of the street in front of a house. He flashed his police lights, hopped out the car and pulled the two men apart. He cuffed them both and sat them apart from each other on the sidewalk. “Enough! Explain what is going on here.” The policeman said to the first man.

“Well,” the first man sighed, “It all started a few nights ago when I thought my girlfriend was cheating on me. I came round to her place to surprise her and found her watching a movie with two suspiciously empty pizza boxes next to her. She said she was just hungry, but who the hell orders two large pizzas for themselves?”

“A valid point,” the policeman nodded.

“Anyway,” the first man continued, “I decided to stake out her house. So I’m waiting here out in the street, watching to see if anyone goes into that pink house on the other side of the road. I have my mate at the pizza shop deliver me a pizza while I wait. Everything’s quiet and I’m just about to start eating my pizza. Until I see that dickhead over there come creeping around the side of the house.”

“That man over there?” The policeman asked.

“Yes! So naturally I confronted him and he denied seeing my girl. Next thing you know we’re in the middle of a brawl and then you arrive.”

The policeman thought for a moment, then undid the cuffs. “Here’s the deal, give me your pizza and I’ll let you drive away with a warning.”

The first man nodded grumpily, hopped in his car and drove off. The policeman placed the pizza in his car and then walked over to the second man. “That guy says you are sleeping with his girlfriend,” the policeman stated.

“I did no such thing!” The second man roared.

“So what were you doing?” The policeman asked.

“Well…” The second man mumbled, “darn, you’ll catch me anyways when you search me. Alright I was trying to rob the place!”

“That’s hardly any better,” the policeman replied.

“The windows were locked up tight, so I decided to give up. Next thing I know some guy is screaming at me, saying I’m having a thing with his girl. We ended up in a fight. Then you turn up.”

“Empty your pockets,” the policeman said. The second man pulled out lockpicking tools, a skeleton key and a pair of diamond earrings from the last house he had robbed.

“I’ll take those,” the policeman said, “But because I’m in a good mood, I’ll let you go.”

The second man couldn’t believe his luck. He skipped away down the street.

Suddenly, the lights at the front of the house turned on. A woman came marching out, “What the hell is going on out here?!” She asked the police officer.

The policeman turned around, “Nothing babe, just got you a pizza and some new jewelry.”

Santa’s elves listen to wrap music as they work.

It used to be a Christmas tradition for our whole family to go to the local pub, come home after several hours and deck the Halls.  To be honest, I can’t understand why the Halls stayed our neighbors for so long.

Stop asking Santa for the perfect man!  I almost got kidnapped three times this week!

I was there for that.  In fact, I took this picture.

Home Depot is putting their Christmas decorations on the second aisle of housewares.  So in other words: Aisle B home for Christmas.

Before I lose my phone, end up naked, and/or arrested I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

For anybody else that’s getting coal for Christmas, maybe we can link up and get the grill going or something.

Screwy pronunciations can mess up your mind! For example…

If you have a  rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough on a tree!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.  And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which  you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

While trying to explain to our six-year-old daughter how much technology had changed, my husband pointed to our brand-new personal computer and told her that when he was in college, a computer with the same amount of power would have been the size of a house. 

Wide-eyed, our daughter asked, “How big was the mouse?” 

Paul, fresh out of accounting school, went to a interview for a good paying job. 

The company boss asked various questions about him and his education, but then asked him, “What is three times seven?”

“22,” Paul replied. After he left, he double-checked it on his calculator (he *knew* he should have taken it to the interview!) and realized he wouldn’t get the job. 

About two weeks later, he got a letter that said he was hired for the job! He was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but was still very curious. 

The next day, he went in and asked why he got the job, even though he got such a simple question wrong. 

The boss shrugged and said, “Well, you were the closest.”

Thanks for the next one Joe, you’ve even got Santa and the reindeer dancing!

This goes back a few years, but just because he’s not here any longer, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t feel the exact same way.

Dear Santa,

I’ve been good all year.
Okay, most of the time.
Once in a while.
Never  mind, I’ll buy my own stuff.

If your lady wants something with diamonds in it for Christmas, get her a deck of cards!
Follow me for more relationship advice.

Overheard child singing: “He’s makin’ a list, chicken and rice…”

A couple were Christmas Shopping.

The shopping center was packed and as the wife walked through one of the malls she was surprised when she looked around to find that her husband was nowhere to be seen.

She was quite upset because they had a lot to do and so she became so worried that she called him on her cell phone to ask him where he was.

In a quiet voice he said, “Do you remember the jewelers we went into about five years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we couldn’t afford, and I told you that I would get it for you one day?”

The wife choked up and started to cry and said, “Yes, I do remember that shop.”

He replied, “Well, I’m in the bar next door.”

I went into a toy store to do some early Christmas shopping and asked the assistant, “Where are the Schwarzenegger dolls?”

He said, “Aisle B, back.”

A woman is taken to court.

The judge asks, “What were you charged for?”

The women replied, “Doing my Christmas shopping too early.”

When the judge asked her how early, she said, “Before the store opened.”

Looks like Santa has had too much eggnog

That is awful!!!

If you are out shopping today, be nice to the retail workers.  It’s not their fault you waited until Mary’s water broke to shop.

Not to brag, but I’ve already picked out the sweatpants I’ll be wearing on New Year’s Eve.

Not sure how this is going to work.  I mean, how many political Christmas memes can I have, right?

Okay, so they weren’t all “Political” per se, but…well, you get the point.  And while we’re on a more serious subject, there are a couple of other things we ought to talk about.  Some other memes that I have intermixed in my HUGE collection of Christmas stuff.

Yeah, not very eloquently said, but people try. 

The point is that some of us have a hard time over the holidays.  This dragon included.  Keep that in mind, especially with people that you don’t know well.  You never know someone’s complete story.  Not everyone is merry and bright.  And be available to your friends and maybe even your not friends.  Remember what we have said about loving your neighbor and your enemies.  Maybe, just maybe being the ear that listens is enough to take that grumpy old man next door from an enemy to a friend.  I know that sounds an awful lot like a Hallmark Christmas special, but seriously…take it from a Dragon who knows, most times someone who is grieving, or lonely, or depressed…

When we are walking through the Valley of Shadows, and the darkness is pressing in close around you.  You trod forward, putting one foot in front of the other in a never ending, unendurable trudge with no light ahead.  The two-hundred pound backpack of depression pushing down on you, the hobbles of grief slowing you down and making you stumble, but the worst of it is the loneliness that chains you to this path.  The loneliness that you hate, but with everything you do and say you foster at the same time.  You don’t want to be around people.  People remind you.  Even though you try to forget, it’s all you can think about anyway.  You don’t want that interaction with other people, because they aren’t the right people.  But, what you want more than anything, what you need more than anything, is just somebody to talk to.  To just have somebody listen.  To really be there and listen.

Yeah, it’s like that.  So, if you are given that opportunity, that blessing, to be that person to listen, to walk with that person through that valley and help them find the light at the other end, please take it.  Some of us are just putting up a good front. 

Okay, now, let’s get back to the laughter, I still have SO many that there is now way I’ll get to them all.

I just cannot believe it. 
I just got home and every door and window is open. 
They have taken everything. 
There is nothing left at all. 
What sort of a person would do that to an advent calendar so early on?

Psst… I have Santa’s Naughty List.  You ALL owe me big time!

I’m so old, I remember what it was like to get Christmas presents like socks ang gloves and be grateful for them.

One of my favorite things to do is to put things in other thing’s boxes.

Based on my checking account balance, it looks like everyone is getting a text message for Christmas.

If anyone is alone with no one to spend Christmas with please let me know.

I need to borrow some chairs.

I was at the bookstore when a copy of “A Christmas Carol” fell of a shelf and landed on my foot.

It hurt like the Dickens!

I don’t have an advent calendar, so I’m just opening cupboard doors and eating whatever’s in there.

If I could get three ghosts to swing by on Christmas Eve and teach me what I’m doing wrong that would be great because I have LOTS of questions.

Boy, now there is an illustration of life in one, very simple cartoon.

It’s all fun and games ’til Santa checks the Naughty List.

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My husband is going to be so surprised when he sees all of the Christmas gifts he bought me.

Currently helping my wife look for the Christmas cookies that I ate last night.

It may take you a little bit to get this next one.

And that’s it my friends.  I can’t possibly squeeze any more into this giant issue.  There are so many more cartoons and memes I’d like to put in here, but I’m really worried as it is now that the website won’t be able to post this as it is.  Plus I have no idea how you guys who get it emailed to you are going to deal with it.  Let’s hope it all works.

I’m going to go ahead and set this to post on the 23rd, which is Saturday because I figure that most everyone will be busy on Sunday the 24th and then again on Monday Christmas day.

I wasn’t really going to talk about this, but I guess I’m going to.  I’m one of those people who are not going to have a good Christmas weekend and this one is going to be a little worse than most.  Most of you know of the enormous stress and problems and what-not that I’ve been dealing with lately, none of which have been settled as of this time.  Add to that missing my wife, which is actually worse this year than it was last, which they said might happen, but it is odd.  Add to that my sweet Izzy is working all this weekend extra hours, right up and through Christmas Eve and I will be alone through most of it.
Oh…and Christmas Eve…is also my birthday.  Not that I’ve EVER done anything special on my birthday.  I have no idea what it’s like to have a special birthday, because I’ve never had one, so it’s not like I’m missing anything, that’s not my point.  My point is, that’s it will not be a good weekend for me, so I’m asking you guys, if you think about it, just keep this old dragon in your prayers.  That’s all I’m asking for for Christmas.  If it wasn’t for Izzy being here with me, I wouldn’t even have Christmas.  Not in the traditional sense.  I would, of course, celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That is the real reason for the holiday, anyway.

Okay, enough.

I don’t do this.

Just keep it in mind for me, please.

Now, may you all have a truly wonderful and God Blessed Christmas holiday, until we meet again next week!  My love to you one and all.