I was traveling all day yesterday in a plane full of nervous, diapered babies - (can you imagine what happened, again and again...?) and came home, as per usual, to a mountain of mail, amid which I found with enormous relief and gratitude today's pensive ZGram:
A Cynic's Christmas
Once more it is time for old Santa to diet, For kids to be good, and for wives to be quiet, For holiday shoppers to pick out their gifts, And for kith, kin and neighbors to patch up their rifts.
It's time to take kiddies to see old St. Nick, And to blanch at the cost of the gifts that they pick; To arrange easy payments on toys to be stashed, Which sometime Christmas Day will be thoroughly smashed,
It's time for the hostess to pick all her guests, And make sure the list has been voided of pests, It's time to decide if the neighbors are civil, And whether they'll bridle at Aunt Marcy's drivel.
It's time to start sending the cards and the letters, to cut down your foes and suck up to your betters. It's time to cook turkey with stuffing and trimmings, and stuff all the turkeys that swarm home like lemmings.
It's time for a tree with the balls and the lights, And it's time to get used to the relatives' fights. It's time for the carols and songs so endearing, That even good earplugs can't keep you from hearing.
It's time to get churched, and it's time for some praying That all of the guests will not be too long staying. It's time once again for the Holiday Season - And time to ask why we have all lost our reason.
(Courtesy of the Birdman)
Thought for the Day:
". . . and forgive us our Christmasses,
as we forgive those who christmas against us."
(Prayer of a little girl after a day's worth of shopping.)