APPROACHING THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS UPDATE (published 12-22-2019; updated 10-3-2022)

10/3/2022, Monday, note: today, I happened to check my website analytics. This 12/22/2019 article had a few views, in the last 24 hours. I wondered what I had written. This article still gets views, at times. Viewership spiked in August and September of 2020, for some reason. Until today, in 2022, this article had been viewed three times in February and three times in July. So, today, I updated my 12/22/2019 article for style, and I added the sections. I didn't change one word.

Introduction

 

Today, at sundown, is the beginning of Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Lights. The Maccabean Revolt and the rededication of the second temple is a historical fact to research and read.

Life, Such as It Was, in Historical Heritage

12/14/19, Saturday: I took Molly "doggy," at 9:30 AM, for her annual physical exam, immunizations, and acquisition of more once-a-month pills (flea/tick and heartworm prevention). She is doing very well -- except for a minor yeast infection in both ears that we’d been trying to cure for a while. Her veterinarian doctor will cure it!

In the early afternoon, in on and off again rain, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman joined me, bravely, to “hunt” our first Christmas tree, since after her mother went Home, on 4/30/2017. We decorated it later, but here is the photo before decorations. This is one of the best Christmas trees that I’ve ever “hunted!” I always ask the tree if it wants to be our Christmas tree. The trees, over the years, always indicate “yes.” I then cut the trees, to take them home, as Christmas trees.

 

As a boy, I enjoyed “hunting” a Christmas tree in the fields and woods around our home, just off dead man’s curve, as it was called, on old Highway 11W. Later, in my teenage and young adult years, I always “hunted” Christmas trees to decorate our new homeplace. I often drove Dad’s old truck to the ancestral Ferrell homeplace, where part of the foundation to the home was still visible, to find a tree. The last tree, for many years, that I “hunted,” with Dad joining me, was for our Knoxville apartment, on Monday, 12/13/1999. (We had returned from Russia, on 9/30/1999.) Mom and Dad drove down to visit us that day. That was a fine memory! Of course, that was before Mom’s eventual journey Home, on 12/27/2000, which started on 12/28/1999. Mom was completely well on 12/13/1999.

Sunday, 12/15/19: I decided that the best thing that I could do for my “bionic” joints was to stay indoors, rest, and recover from the prior week, before another 12/16-20/19 work-a-day work-a-day world that I endured, once again.

Saturday, 12/21/19: I had my seventh, every-four-week, deep tissue massage, at 11 AM. Of course, I hauled trash before, and I got 100% gas for my new, ol’ truck afterward. That was enough for the “bionic” joints!

Well, at least Mrs. Appalachian Irishman is on her two-week Christmas (not “winter”) vacation from her teacher/vice-principal school job. I’m “burning” a few days (as I call it), on 12/23/2019, 1/2/2020, and 1/3/2020. Us long-suffering State employees get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day off.

Conclusion

As we approach sundown, the following is a historical memory photo, from my “fun” days in 2016.

 

The black item is the brace that I wore on my right leg, to keep my knee immobilized. The boot is what I wore on my right foot, to also keep it immobilized. Those were “fun” days! I happened to be placing a drying rack under the bed, when I noticed these items. I thought, “why not have a little fun with a photo!”

Well, Merry Christmas, y’all, for the RIGHT and TRUE meaning of the reason for the season! The Word became flesh, dwelled among us, died as our atoning sacrifice, and rose again, to return one day (soon, I hope). The divine Scheme of Redemption was accomplished -- only to await the full accomplishment by the return of Christ and the conclusion of this temporal realm.