He disciplines us
for our good,
that we may
share his holiness.
-Hebrews 12:10

If there were no hell
we would be like the animals.
No hell, no dignity.
-Flannery O'Connor

If every man would
sweep his own doorstep
the city would soon be clean.
-Welsh Proverb

Nothing shows a
man's character
more than what
he laughs at.
-Goethe

A morning without coffee
is like sleep.

Don't cry because
it's over.
Smile because
it happened.
-Dr. Seuss

God bless us, every one.

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For unto you
is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior,
which is Christ
the Lord.
Luke 2:11

Christmas is the day that
holds all time together.
-Alexander Smith

photograph by Joel Wingo (personaphotography.com)

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.
-Christina Rosetti

You have saved our lives.
We are eternally grateful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAX!

You don't take a photograph,
you make it.
-Ansel Adams

Today Pax Nathanael Howard turns twelve. Thirteen years ago Kate thought we were done with the manufacturing phase of parenthood. We already had five great kids but I thought we still needed a caboose. She wanted a bigger home, so we worked out a deal, and on
January first of 1994 we moved into Five Talbot Avenue.
On December twentieth out came Pax!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
make the Yuletide gay.
-Ralph Blane

The day is for
honest men,
the night
for thieves.
-Euripides

And the Word
became flesh and
dwelt among us,
and we have seen
his glory,
glory as of the
only Son
from the Father,
full of grace
and truth.
-John 1:14

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the tree tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
-Irving Berlin

photo by Liz Tubergen

To live is so startling
it leaves little time
for anything else.
-Emily Dickinson

I never thought
it was such a
bad little tree.
It's not bad
at all, really.
Maybe it just needs
a little love.
-A Charlie Brown Christmas

Oh for the good old days
when people would stop
Christmas shopping when
they ran out of money.

Life is the childhood
of our immortality.
-Goethe

Christmas is a time
when you get homesick -
even when you're home.
-Carol Nelson

And, lo, the angel
of the Lord came
upon them, and the
glory of the Lord
shone round about
them: and they were
sore afraid.
-Luke 2:9

I stopped believing
in Santa Claus
when I was six.
Mother took me
to see him in a
department store
and he asked for
my autograph.
-Shirley Temple

I will honor Christmas
in my heart,
and try to keep it
all the year.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

All over Asia parents
tell their children to
stop complaining and finish
their trigonometry because
there are millions of
American kids going to bed
with no math at all.

-Michael Cunningham

Aren't we
forgetting the
true meaning
of Christmas?
You know, the
birth of Santa?
-Bart Simpson

To be a man is,
precisely,
to be responsible.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Mistakes are the
portals of discovery.
-James Joyce

Take hold
of that
which is
life indeed.
-1 Timothy 6:19

There is only one race,
the human race.

-Dan Aykroyd

Inject a few raisins
of conversation into
the tasteless dough
of existence.

-O. Henry

You can always,
always give something,
even if it is only
kindness.

-Anne Frank

Grown-ups never understand
anything for themselves and
it is tiresome for children
to be always and forever ex-
plaining everything to them.

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

I know this world is ruled by infinite
intelligence. It required infinite intelligence
to create it, and it requires infinite intelligence
to keep it on its course. Everything that
surrounds us, everything that exists, proves
that there are infinite laws behind it.
There can be no disputing this fact.
It is mathematical in its precision.

-Thomas Edison

He was like a cock
who thought the sun
had risen to hear
him crow.
-George Eliot

Blessed is the man
who does not
condemn himself
by what he approves.
-Romans 14:22

God provides the wind,
but man must raise
the sails.
-Augustine

You ever looked up
the word "dictionary"
in a dictionary?
A little hand comes out
and smacks you one.

Gratitude is not only
the greatest of all virtues,
but the parent of all
the others.

-Cicero

The
world
fascinates
me.
-Andy Warhol

Things sweet to taste
prove in digestion
sour.
-William Shakespeare

Art evokes the mystery
without which the world
would not exist.

-Rene Magritte

He leads me
in the paths
of righteousness
for his name's sake.
-Psalm 23:3

A thing of beauty
is joy forever;
its loveliness
increases.

-John Keats

Deep down
in his heart
no man much
respects himself.

-Mark Twain

There is no such thing
in any person's life
as an unimportant day.

-Alexander Woolcott

Think of all the beauty
still left around you
and be happy.

-Anne Frank

Capitalism is the unequal
sharing of blessings.
Socialism is the equal
sharing of misery.

-Winston Churchill