Christmas in Beautiful San Diego County

As read By 'Captain' Mike Ambrose (RIP 912008) KGTV each Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through our town, no noses were frozen, no snow fluttered down -no children in flannels were tucked into bed; they all wore their shorty pajamas instead!
To find wreaths of holly was not very hard, for holly trees sprouted right in the back yard! In front of the houses were daddys and moms, admiring the bushes and beautiful palms. The slumbering kiddies were dreaming in glee, and hoped they'd find water skis under the tree. They all knew that Santa was well on his way In a Mercedes-Benz instead of a sleigh.

And soon he arrived and started to work, he hadn't a second to linger or shirk.
He whizzed o'er the highways and zoomed up the road in a shiny new sports car delivering his load.
The tropical moon gave the city a glow and lighted the way for Santa below.

As he jumped in the auto he gave a wee chuckle; he was dressed in Bermudas with an Ivy League buckle. There weren't many chimneys - but that caused no gloom. For Santa came in through the patio room. 

He stopped at each house, staying only a minute, and lightened his sack of the gifts that were in it.

Before he parted he treated himself
to a glass of orange juice left on the shelf. Then he turned with a jerk and bounced back to the car. Remembering he still had to go very far. He stepped on the gas and put it in gear and drove throughout town singing with cheer.

And I heard him exclaim as he went on his way:
"Merry Christmas San Diego County, I wish I could stay!"

12 Days: Light

Americans spend a lot of money on lights. One of the things I used to tell my kids about lights on houses at Christmastime was that Christians like to let the world know that if Mary and Joseph were to come looking for a place to stay, they would have no problem in that all they would need to do is knock at the door of a house with lights.

The story of the four candles also punctuate the season for me. Peace, Faith, Love and Hope....when one goes out, HOPE remains the flame that can ignite the others again. As long as there is hope there is LIFE - and as long as there is LIFE there is hope.

This light of hope was especially true for me this August where my friend Juan Carlos nearly lost his life in a cycling crash. He did survive and lives now with a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the nipples down. On his sister's Facebook page was this photo:

Mientras haya vida, hay esperanzas - While there is life, there is hope...

The blessing of hope. May we all find our light this season - and keep it burning.
This light and burning remind me of a special song that I love - "Biko" by Peter Gabriel. The lyrics are; "You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire. Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher...."

Okay - so what to do to make sure your HOPE is burning and turns to FIRE? That is the journey, my friends. I know my flame is sometimes barely a whisper of a light.....I look to others for help and I pray that the path is revealed to all of us in perfect light.