Jupiter and Saturn are teaming up to make their appearance as the Star of Bethlehem on the longest night of the year. Starting Tuesday, the days will be getting longer a little bit at a time. Things are looking brighter overall as the vaccine and the continued good vigilance of the population will have us all back in each other’s arms before next Christmas. Some great scientific treatise or novel will be written about “Two Years of the Pandemic.” People who are in the second and third grade now will one day talk about this time as their grandparents talk about walking so many miles uphill both ways in the snow to get to school. Last week’s letters to Santa in the Herald made some Champions smile thinking about themselves at the age of these young scholars. Seasonal sentimentality surges as we remember our sweet Christmases past. This one, being like no other, is still the special one for our youngsters.

This is a special time for Herbie Johnston too. He just had his 65th birthday, but he is one of those forever young people by virtue of his lively nature. Internet users were treated to a 3 minute 45 second video of him on that great big fiddle in the company of a couple guitars, a couple mandolins and a banjo playing “Joy to the World” and “Jingle Bells.” The Midwest Bluegrass Directory folks have a great video of “Herbie Johnston’s Fiddle Frolic at the Boot Heal Bluegrass Festival” in 2014. It is a pleasure to hear him play that little fiddle and a joy to know that he is encouraging a generation of young fiddlers. The positive effect of music on children (on all of us) can hardly be overstated. The Backyard Bluegrass baby boy is now three years old. His venerable old grandpappy most likely has him up on his knee picking something. Merry Christmas!

We read in history that from 1659 to 1681, the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas in Massachusetts. They hated its Pagan roots and excess. Meaning the only group to ever ban Christmas in America were Christians. Libraries are full of books about the Meaning of Christmas and the Reason for the Season. There is a lovely Nativity scene at the corner of C Highway and 76. We all have our personal feelings and histories with the best day of the year. And we are, every one, ready for a time of love and peace and wonder and joy and thanksgiving and hope. God bless us every one!

Champions are surprised! One finally figured out that the baby black bear she has been seeing in the same tree every time she passes is, after all, a plastic bag brought up there by the wind and held in brushy entanglement. It was nice thinking it was a bear. The first trip to town in a month found 20 miles of surprises—land being cleared, new houses popping up. Along the way Christmas decorations offer bright fanciful fun with fat snowmen wobbling in the wind and candy canes from here to yonder. In a year of surprises, hopes are that Christmas surprises will be sweet ones. We have our families and our friends and we will all be celebrating, even if in different places together. Peace on Earth, good will toward men from Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

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