I haven't said much about the Christmas controversy on this blog because I think it's all moot--except as just one small part of the overall war against Christianity. I probably have what many Christians would consider an odd outlook on Christmas, and probably an outlook that is held by a minority of Christians. I have never celebrated Christmas as the birth of Christ. To me, and to all of my immediate family as well as many of my extended family, it has always just been a day to hang out together and exchange gifts. The reason for this is that the Bible never gives us the day of His birth, nor are we instructed in the Bible to celebrate the day of His birth. We are instructed instead to celebrate the day of His resurrection, which happened on the first day of the week, and is celebrated every first day of the week. I do not go so far as to rail against those who sing songs about his birth during Christmas-time, because He told some of his disciples once something like, "Where two or three are joined together, there am I in their midst." So if some carolers want to sing songs about him during Christmas-time, who am I to say that theirs is not a valid form of worship, and that Jesus is not there in their midst? More power to them. And that's all I have to say about that.

I am thankful for many things during this time of year. I am especially thankful that I am required to see certain relatives and in-laws only rarely, this time of year being one of those occasions. Just about everyone in my family, including my wife, say that I am very hard to buy gifts for. So I have devised a cunning plan, as Baldrick would say. Next year I'm going to tell everyone to just go to Walmart and buy me the first box of ammo they notice behind the shelf at the sports counter. To make it easy on them, I'll tell them to focus on handgun ammo. Whatever they buy, odds are that I'll have a gun that will shoot it. If not, that will be a perfect excuse to buy another gun. I think it's a good plan.