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    A Scandalous Christmas

    We certainly have become accustomed to reading about scandal in the 24-hour news cycle world that we live in. Whether political scandals, celebrity scandals, or the scandals we like to talk about in our small communities, we have become addicted to them somehow, and I’m not sure that is a good thing. That said, every year on December 25th, we arguably celebrate the most scandalous story ever told. Over the years, we seem to have domesticated the Nativity story in many ways. I am as guilty as anyone. We paint the picture through our “nice,” often middle-class, everyday lives. Not to say that any of that is terrible. I heard…

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    Merry Christmas

    The crisp cold air that surrounded the house had no bearing on the excitement and smiles that my two boys had as they paced the hallway at the top of my parent’s stairs.  The same hallway that I once paced waiting for my father to give us the go ahead to stumble dangerously down the stairs in haste to attack the presents waiting for us under the tree.  The same butterflies in our stomachs.   The same unknowing.  The same anticipation that gave birth to uncontrollable smiles.  It is and was the heart wrenching surprise and expectation of it all. It is Christmas morning.  Christmas through the eyes of my two…

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    Human, A Christmas Carol

    Last week while driving home from dropping the kids off at school, I heard the first Christmas carol of the season.  Well, sort of.  It was an accident, and it wasn’t necessarily a Christmas carol by nature.  Because Switzerland does not inundate their radio stations and stores with traditional Christmas songs weeks before Christmas, Human by the Human League, at least on one level, served to be the first one I heard all season. Now before you think I have been drinking too much Gluhwein, let me try to explain.  I admit that I am an 80’s freak, so anything from the 1980s is ranked high on my list.  The…

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    Christmas Market

    Switzerland is known for their beautiful Christmas Markets.  With this being our first Christmas Season in Switzerland we are excited to visit many markets around the country. Here are some pictures from our first Christmas Market in  Brienz, Switzerland. “The season of Advent is like springtime in nature, when everything is renewed and so is fresh and healthy. Advent is also meant to do this to us — to refresh us and make us healthy, to be able to receive Christ in whatever form he may come to us.”  -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta