IT'S OFFICIAL!

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Yep, it's now officially the Christmas season at the Allen casa'.  We got the tree.  We got all the furniture arranged where its almost impossible to watch a football game.  We got the nativity scene.  We got your little pieces of fake greenery twisted around everything that's up all year anyway to somehow mysteriously make it "Christmasy" now.

Susan asked me if I was going to hang lights outside on the house.  I told her I had had a little talk with Jesus and he had told me, "Tom, for my birthday, I don't want you to hang lights.  I want you to be the light".  (UmmUmmUmmm...wow)  And I told him, "OK, if that's what you want...I'll do it!"  Nix on the outside lights.

My favorite Christmas decoration, hands down, are the stockings (well, they're actually boots...cowboy boot shaped stockings) hung on the mantle with everyone's name on them.  It started with two...just Susan and me.  Then along came Caleb Brady Allen and we were suddenly three.  Then four.  Later five.  Then six.  Fast-forward to today...we're 15!  I can't believe it!  Seems like yesterday I was a single guy in seminary, all alone.  Then, I met a girl, and shortly, for the rest of my life I was never alone.  I couldn't find any place to be alone.  Now, there's 15 of us.  But, most have left the nest and we're adjusting to the semi-quiet again.  Just me and Susan.  But, those stockings on the mantle remind me of my most precious inheritance.  My wife.  My kids.  My kids' kids.  That mantle represents my treasure of great price.  And, of all the things we decorate our home with, that is, by far, my favorite.

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