12/21 Drunken Rudolph

Presenting drunken Rudolphs, the socks that started my Christmas sock obsession. Unfortunately, Rudolph is going to that sock drawer in the sky because one of the drunken Rudolphs is missing his big red nose, thanks to a pull. I wore them to do last minute stuff at home. I added more ornaments to the tree, picked up around the house, strung my dad in the window. It wasn’t really my dad. It was a lighted Hallmark memorial ornament, only it didn’t want to light this year. After replacing a dead bulb with the only one that fit in the socket, my father now blinks at me from the kitchen window. It tickles me to see his smiling face blinking on and off, keeping me company. Family. Have you ever thought about whether Mary and Joseph had anyone with them during the start of their family? A midwife, maybe? One of Joseph’s relatives? That part of the story is missing. Where was their family? We’ll be missing our extended family this year. We live too far away, but they are in our hearts. Like my dad. He’s in my heart now and forever, although he’s never blinked at me before.

12/12 Grayndeer

Dec 12 – Christmas is an assault. The hustle and bustle attacks us with gusto. We experience Christmas with all five of our senses on full alert. We hear the Salvation Army ringers and the caroling of familiar songs. We see the glitz and the glitter in the decorations. We feel it in the cold weather as we pull on our reindeer Christmas socks to go shopping (and boy, it’s cold right now). We smell the fresh evergreens and the ginger cookies. And we taste the candy canes, the warmed wassail and hot chocolate. We can wish that the Christmas season was calm and peaceful, but without the madness of it, we wouldn’t appreciate the peace that comes with the advent of Christmas Eve. There was no peace for Mary in the stable that night so long ago. The sounds and smells of animals, the feel of the hay and maybe Joseph’s calloused hands, the pain of childbirth, the sight of a king in the form of a new-born baby, the first taste of love for the little one that she held in her arms. No, Mary’s Christmas was an attack too. An attack of peace on earth.

12/4 Sir Rudolph of Reindeer

Dec. 4 – Carol Burnett did a sketch on her show about a light house keeper’s daughter who acted as the fog horn for the light house. I still remember Carol, in a deep voice, going “Fo – og,” as the pitch went down at the end, sounding like a genuine fog horn. I needed a fog horn today. I ventured out to Walgreen’s drug store in the foggy morning light. The mist was thick; the driving was slow. It made me wonder about the wise men and how slow their journey to Bethlehem must have been. No cars, only camels. Slo –ow. Yet, they plodded on to find the prize at the end of the journey, lying in the manger. I finally made it to Walgreen’s and unexpectedly found my Holy Grail of Christmas socks – Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie socks! I have the entire set of plastic figurines, complete with Bumble, so you can imagine how happy I was to find Rudolph socks. How much happier the wise men must have been to find Jesus. There’s really no comparison.