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In the words of Charles Spurgeon…

Now a happy Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you. I shall say nothing to day against festivities on this great birthday of Christ. We will to-morrow think of Christ’s birthday; we shall be obliged to do it, I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And so, ‘let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavend bread of sincerity and truth.’ Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of Bacchus; do not live to-morrow as if you adored some heathen divinity. Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting to-morrow, celebrate your Saviour’s birth; do not be ashamed to be glad; you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.”

“Religion never was designed to make your pleasures less.”

Recollect that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem; let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the Child given. I finish by again saying, —

“A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL”

So as all 3 loyal readers of clanMcGraw.com know, a couple of years I got hooked on deer hunting. I joined a club for about 3 years, but got out. This year, thanks to knowing a guy at Church, I’ve joined a hunting club right outside of Montevallo. It’s about 1 hour from my door to tree stand. Not bad at all.

Ever since I took him squirrel hunting a couple of years ago, Brandon’s been wanting to go deer hunting with me. We were going to go this past weekend, but since he was sick on his Birthday, we thought it best to wait a few days. Today we set out for the woods.

When we got there, 1 of the other guys had shot an 8-point that morning, and was just starting to clean the deer. I hopped out of the truck to sign out the shooting house that we’d be in, and Brandon came with me. We made small talk with Billy for a few minutes and watched him get started. It was a good close for Brandon to see a deer up close.

We then hiked out to the shooting house. We got settled in, and were just about to have a snack when I saw 2 deer on a green field. We got our binoculars, and discovered that we were looking at 2 bucks - a 4 point and a spike. They had no problem being in close proximity with each other. We watched them for about 10 minutes, and I asked Brandon to break out his doe bleat. As soon as he made the call, both bucks popped their heads up and looked around. They also squared off against each other, and in about 2 minutes started scraping each other. (Funny what some attention from a woman will do to 2 guys. There’s a life lesson to be learned there, son).

After they moved off the field, we had lunch and just passed away the next 3 hours making small talk. As the sun started to go down, I saw a doe on the hillside. I pointed it out, and we spent some time looking at it. And after that, another 4 point walked onto the lower part of the green field. I’m about 90% certain that it was a different deer from earlier that day. We played around with him and the calls until it got dark, and he was off the field. We then left to head back home.

All in all, what a wonderful day. I can’t remember the last time that the 2 of us just hung out together, and enjoyed a lazy day like today. I will cherish this memory forever.

At the McGraw house, Christmas isn’t Christmas until I’ve watched my favorite blockhead:

Thank you, Hulu. Enjoy.

Muppet Style:

(Link)

Believe it or not, the political chatter on clanMcGraw.com is kept to a minimum. (Maybe that’s because posting is at a minimum. But that’s another story).

But the President may have gone too far. There are some Christmas traditions that you just do not mess with.

Good Grief.