By MYRNA FAUSKA
As I write this, it is only 18 shopping days until Christmas, and as you read this, you have just 15 days left to buy your gifts and get them wrapped. Aren’t the holidays fun? This year my shopping has been mostly from the myriad catalogs I’ve been receiving the past month or so, which keeps me safe at home and not patronizing the stores for Christmas goodies. In addition to the different shopping experience, the festive parties and events are put on hold as we celebrate at home vicariously through internet and TV programs.
As I look back on the past week, I find only two neighbors having anything to report. Up the valley and at the Parkhursts’, Jim and Mary are still enjoying their daughter Debbie’s pre-Christmas visit.
You can always count on Lynette Vlasak and Sally Dana to provide us with something to read about. On Monday they attended visitation for Logan Henthorne, and on Tuesday they helped serve for his funeral at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kendall. Our sincere sympathy goes out to his family as he spends his first Christmas with his Savior.
On Thursday, Carol Fronk and Cheryl Neitzel joined Lynette and Sally in making Christmas cards to deliver to folks in local nursing homes. On Friday the gals enjoyed the company of Mariane Weidenbach as they lunched at the library with takeout from the Fireball Lanes. On Saturday they were in Wilton donating blood, and on the way home, they stopped at Hoffman Corners for a visit with Ruth Steinke.
With fewer Christmas preparations and celebrations because of the pandemic, we can still enjoy a quieter holiday as we spend more time in worship with the Reason for the season, Jesus Christ. We can concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas as we put Him first in our lives, remembering that Christmas begins with Christ. Take him out of it, and all we have is “mas,” which really doesn’t mean anything.