Christmas, Joy Offering: A Sharing Gift 

In, Out: Words that you, if you have perused this post even on less stellar occasions, have come to associate with my reference to a Pixar film, in order to get you in touch with your-selfie, a few of your core feelings, which recently got updated with an appeal to get in touch with your inner child, on such occasions as This. Including an update on what now constitutes "naughty and nice". But now that It has finally arrived, the day that we, almost worldwide now, has been anxiously awaiting...shopping, dropping ($$$) for, we can all take a minute or two, to ponder what This is really all about. To peer inside ourselves to find at least a morsel of that JOY! we have been hearing so much about, ever since a few minutes after midnight on 10/31 -- "we are your 24 hour Christmas music station..." And once you find it, what do you, yourself, choose to do...a choice that is yours and yours alone to make -- whether to just hang onto It, be a bit possessive, or intro-spective as to what This is all about...decide to share It, as in exporting JOY! Perhaps even shout with It, from a mountain top, or even more lowly, austere places, you may find yourself, as They did...JOY! that first gets re-discovered, shared, and then, once again re-envisioned...

Words, Pictures: Words that can be found not only in the Bible (still the authority on This), which is credited, along with the works of William Shakespeare, in shaping our (English) language, the words, combinations of, have given us a whole range of ways, dimensions, of reporting on how we all experience This: Christmas JOY! Some words of which may even still, to this day, be found in the list of words we have come to associate with Merriam and Webster who, according to the "nice" folks at Wikipedia (who also know "a thing or two") started with George and Charles Merriam founding a company in 1831 which would eventually absorb all the 'words of wisdom' of Noah Webster, in 1943. Lists of words we have come to rely on as "the authority" now referenced online, not even having to make a trip to the local library to pick up that huge volume, which used to make a huge thud! if/when you plopped it on a table, which brought unwelcomed glances from the librarian...peering (more like glaring) over her readers, legend has it. Lists of words that become "revised" every year right about this time, just after Christmas, and just in time for the first holiday of the New Year, lists of those we actually get to vote on, that have become popularized, part of our mainstream, and those we just as soon dis-card, fall out of popular usage...there's only so much room, after all.  Where-as, two 'illustrious' others, known to us simply as "Currier and Ives" started and operated a NY printing business from 1835 until 1907, which designed and sold hand-printed lithographs of all things "Americana". Originals of which are sought after by collectors, especially, at this time of year, those depicting winter scenes, some of which can be found on Christmas cards. Which, in turn, of course, are brought to us, now on "all occasions" from the good folks at "Hallmark", a company founded by Joyce Clyde Hall who, along with his brothers not only created scenes and memes that we all tried to live up to, capture ourselves, on such occasions, as This, which now not only feature still shots (as in "hold still children, or else...") but now offer us a whole range, a series of Christmas movies which, for me, is a vivid reminder that It remains a moving target, ever being re-formed, transformed (as in "Tran Siberian🎝"). To go full circle, at least 'ornamentally', the Hall brothers and their ever-increasing numbers of employees (at this writing Wiki indicate number over 27,000) which include writers, artists, marketers, and many other specialists now, circa 1973 added the creation of Christmas ornaments to their portfolio, some of which feature scenes from Currier and Ives, and some of which adorn trees, whereas others become "keepsakes", handed down, to future gens, as sources of...

                                                                     JOY to the WORLD!