{"id":2901,"date":"2012-01-10T06:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T06:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/as-we-leave-christmastide.html"},"modified":"2012-01-10T06:27:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T06:27:00","slug":"as-we-leave-christmastide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/as-we-leave-christmastide.html","title":{"rendered":"As we leave Christmastide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The most awesome nativity scene at St. Mary parish<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A few reflections.\u00a0 Neither my wife, nor I, have what is commonly known as \u2018gainful\u2019 employment.\u00a0 My wife was let go from her position at McGraw-Hill when a computer in New York cut her position along with hundreds of others three weeks before Christmas.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I have been working for the American Family Life Assurance Company, otherwise known as Aflac (you know, the duck).\u00a0 It\u2019s a good job and a great product, but make no mistake \u2013 if you don\u2019t come into it with a book of contacts and networks, or if you don\u2019t live in an area with endless millions of businesses, it will likely take a few years to get on your feet.\u00a0 With my wife\u00a0losing her job and soon neither of us having steady \u2013 if any \u2013 income, we don\u2019t know what the future brings.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In addition to this, of course, we\u2019ve dealt with the loss of my Dad, my Mom moving in with us, severe family problems with which my sister has had to contend, and problems in our schools regarding our sons, particularly our 13 year old.\u00a0\u00a0 Long story short there, he\u2019s obviously a very gifted student, scoring among the top in his grade in science among others, but due to bureaucratic red tape and arbitrary guidelines, he has continually been cast out of the advanced classes despite scoring better in tests and getting better grades than some other students in the classes.\u00a0 All of our objections have been for naught.\u00a0 For a while we considered homeschooling, but\u00a0just before we sent the documents to the school system, my wife\u2019s job was terminated.<\/p>\n

So at this point we have no clue what the future holds.\u00a0 We pray that we will have the faith and good graces to accept whatever door is opened for us, and that a door is indeed opened.\u00a0 What the future holds, we can\u2019t even come close to guessing at this point.<\/p>\n

All this is to say that, despite it all, we tried to make this a fine Christmas for all.\u00a0 Our oldest sons are aware of the circumstances and, naturally, can\u2019t help but be a little worried.\u00a0 But for it all, we stretched the season out, thanks to the Catholic tradition of actually celebrating Christmas for 12 days after Christmas, rather than stressing and straining in the weeks leading up to the 25th, and then tossing it all aside the next day.\u00a0\u00a0 We also partook in the lovely generosity of some anonymous parishioners who heard of our plight and added some material joy to the mix.\u00a0 When it was all done and over, I think, as Dickens would say, we kept Christmas well.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Our prayer is that by the end of the year, we will know for what it was for, and how the paths of\u00a0our lives were to\u00a0find their purpose and God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 Here is\u00a0the family, the last night of Christmas Season proper, regaling\u00a0any passersby with our rendition of the greatest Christmas Carol while enjoying our little lights display one last time until next year. <\/p>\n

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The most awesome nativity scene at St. Mary parish A few reflections.\u00a0 Neither my wife, nor I, have what is commonly known as \u2018gainful\u2019 employment.\u00a0 My wife was let go from her position at McGraw-Hill when a computer in New York cut her position along with hundreds of others three weeks before Christmas.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAs we leave Christmastide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The most awesome nativity scene at St. Mary parishA few reflections.  Neither my wife, nor I, have what is commonly known as 'gainful'\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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