Around ChApin & irmo

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah to all of you!! Our homes twinkle and sparkle with Christmas decorations and lights. I hope all those presents will be wrapped before Christmas Eve.

Statistics estimate that we will spend around $1 trillion on gifts, Christmas decorations, and traveling during the holidays. We will get our gifts either online or in stores, and spend $3.2 billion on wrapping paper. Over 2.68 million people will attend a Christmas service at a local church this year.

This week can be joyful to see family or painful if one has lost a loved one this year. I encourage you to remember the lonely, the hurting, the poor, and the forgotten this week. After all, isn’t that what St. Nicholas did?

However you celebrate the holiday season, I pray you have some peace from the chaotic chatter of the world, rest from all the hectic holiday pace, and create beautiful memories with family and friends.

We all need to remember the real reason for the season, the birth of the Lord Jesus in a simple manger, on a beautiful starry night in Bethlehem.