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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Five Values 'It's a Wonderful Life' Can Remind Us Of This Christmas

Frank Capra’s 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has become, alongside Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, a staple of the holiday season. And while a certain oh-so-modern mindset is ready to sneer at the film as a “terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams,” most Americans recognize in the film a set of values whose absence in contemporary society hurts.

As A Christmas Carol was written not for children but as a gift book that adults shared and pondered; neither is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” just for children. Art and literature were once thought to be as much for edification as education: as you watch the film for the umpteenth time this December, here’s my David Letterman top five list of “It’s a Wonderful Life” values worth recovering this Christmas season:

You’re part of something bigger

Keep reading..

Its Only A Game


Do You Believe?


All I Want For Christmas Is You by Lisa Layne/Vince Vance and the Valiants

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME - Glen Campbell

Johnny Mathis ~ Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Heirlooms - Amy Grant

Bing Crosby - White Christmas

Once in Royal David's City

Secret Santa - A Here Come The Mummies Holiday Video

Rockin Around The Christmas Tree

Elvis Presley - Santa Claus Is Back In Town & Blue Christmas

Frank Sinatra - I'll Be Home For Christmas

Little Saint Nick - The Beach Boys

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

O Holy Night - Josh Groban

Handel Messiah (Christmas Portion) - Robert Shaw and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Christmas Starts with a Baby's Giggle

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

A Different Kind of Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "It’s really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remember."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

O Holy Night - Taranda Greene

Hallelujah Christmas Version

Rest On Me - The Nelons

Nat King Cole - Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

Just So You Know

SAGE restaurant is open Christmas Day for anyone wanting to go out (the owners have not bullied the employees)
The MVA is open on Friday the 26th 8:30am to 4:30pm

Mary, Did You Know? - Mark Lowry

White Christmas-Billy Vaughn And His Orchestra

MERRY CHRISTMAS WISHES

While we wish ALL of you a very Merry Christmas, take this opportunity to send a Loved One, Family Member, Friend, Neighbor, Co Worker, (here and abroad) your special wishes in comments.