{"id":7668,"date":"2023-12-25T04:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T04:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=7668"},"modified":"2025-12-24T19:33:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:33:22","slug":"merry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/merry-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/sunset-nativity-scene-freezing-fog-and-frosted-trees\/#20210102brianhgillfamily\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20201109ff\/20210102-CrecheMagi-DSC08896-658.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brian H. Gill family creche\/nativity scene. (January 2, 2021) Figures from CMG's father's father, stable made by PMG.\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Our creche\/nativity scene. (January 2, 2021)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20190916ff\/MarianGarden20101226-160-b.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Marian garden at Our Lady of the Angels, Sauk Centre MN\">With rain and freezing rain in the forecast for today, I wanted something other than my favorite Christmas-season picture for that <strong>Christmas 2023<\/strong> display in the upper right.  So I selected part of a photo from 2021: this household&#8217;s Nativity scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a &#8220;family&#8221; set: both because it&#8217;s the one we use, and because of its history. The figures were my wife&#8217;s father&#8217;s father&#8217;s, our son made the stable. The January 2, 2021, photo shows how the scene will look in a few days, after the shepherds have left and before the Magi arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a name=\"deckusall\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/boston-charlie-partridges-in-pear-trees-and-me\/#yesteryear\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20201109ff\/20201127-WaltKellyDeckUsAllWithBostonCharlie-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"'Deck Us All With Boston Charlie', a partial rendition of Walt Kelly's Christmas song, in his 'Pogo' comic strip. (1948 or thereabouts)\"><\/a>I&#8217;ve talked about the Christmas season before, and maybe I will again this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then again, maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either way: Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/advent-2022-remembering-the-big-picture\/\">Advent 2022: Remembering the Big Picture<\/a>&#8220;<br>(December 22, 2022)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/epiphany-the-magi-and-me-the-big-aha\/\">Epiphany, the Magi and Me: The Big Aha!<\/a>&#8220;<br>(January 1, 2022)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/jesus-human-on-his-mothers-side-the-incarnation\/\">Jesus, Human on His Mother\u2019s Side: the Incarnation<\/a>&#8220;<br>(December 25, 2021)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/joy-and-shadow-free-will-and-something-silly\/\">Joy and Shadow, Free Will and Something Silly<\/a>&#8220;<br>(December 12, 2020)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/boston-charlie-partridges-in-pear-trees-and-me\/\">Boston Charlie, Partridges in Pear Trees and Me<\/a>&#8220;<br>(November 28, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With rain and freezing rain in the forecast for today, I wanted something other than my favorite Christmas-season picture for that Christmas 2023 display in the upper right. So I selected part of a photo from 2021: this household&#8217;s Nativity &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/merry-christmas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"A quick holiday greeting, looking at this household's Nativity scene, and that is about it. Merry Christmas!","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Merry Christmas!","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[109,90],"class_list":["post-7668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-christmas","tag-holidays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-1ZG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9794,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668\/revisions\/9794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}