Hurry up and wait! I heard that many times when I was in Basic Training. This was the statement that meant you had to rush to get somewhere only to find when you got to where you were going, everyone else arrived just before you. Therefore you had to wait even though you hurried to get there.

I don't think people like to wait for anything. Christmas decorations are already hung in the cities across the US, stores are running sales to get you inside to buy more stuff, (most of which we don't need) and radio stations started playing Christmas tunes before Thanksgiving Day. Both the Hallmark and ABC Family television stations are celebrating their 25 days to Christmas with a Christmas movie or two to feed your Christmas desire.

But what happens on Christmas Day? Many of us wake up to find it has now become a day to open presents and to eat mass quantities of food. It is almost anticlimactic. It is the end of the season. And for most of us, when December 26 comes we shut off the Christmas music, the radio stations certainly stop playing them. We may even take down our Christmas trees. We are sick of Christmas. We have been bombarded with it for over a month so no its wonder we are sick of it. And now our only joy is the dreaded bills yet to come. (Yes, that is sarcasm.)

So I was wondering if Christmas would be more joyous if we toned down the celebration from a month long prior celebration to maybe two weeks before Christmas and then into the first week in January? Do you think maybe we would be less sick of Christmas if we did it that way?

The only problem I see is the fact that it seems like some people need this pre-Christmas preparation of 30 days in order to make Christmas special. I have to be honest with you, as a child I loved Christmas because I got presents. I got to be with family. I got to eat turkey, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, olives etc.

Yet I always had to wait. The presents were not under the tree until Christmas morning. The family slept from night to morn on Christmas Eve. The turkey, spaghetti, olives, potatoes and whatever else was not cooked yet and was not going to be eaten until the afternoon anyway.

And today I remember that I had to wait for every good moment on Christmas Day. We are waiting for the Lord, Jesus Christ to come again. Let us wait for Christmas and celebrate His first coming and continue to wait for his coming again. May the Lord give you patience to wait on Him, it is a good moment.

I should probably pay more attention to this guy but the activity on the other side of the road sure looks interesting. By the way the during the parade St. Paul Lutheran Church in Kouts was looking to hand out water and popsicles to the spectators of the parade. One more thing the goofy looking guy in the green hat and wearing a backpack is Pastor Bob.

Above I have one person petting me who has been watching the parade. You know, life doesn't get any better than when someone is petting you or scratching your ears.

I think I'll go over here and see if this guy on the bicycle wants to scratch my ears.

This member of St. Paul Lutheran Church was handing out popsicle sticks. I she could go for one of those.

Overall the parade was a success. We handed all of the popsicle sticks and all of the water.