"I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people but because we are proud, arrogant people.  The Christmas story -- the one according to Luke not Dickens -- is not about how blessed it is to be givers but about how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers.  We prefer to think of ourselves as givers -- powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate.  Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas.  There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are.  Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we -- with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities -- had little to do with God's work in Jesus."  ~Williams Willimon

We're beginning to catch our collective breath after a whirlwind week of celebrating Christmas.  Listening to Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" while we travel is a Christmas tradition in our family.