FR POST OFFICE (post Christmas cards, greetings, messages to your fellow FReepers here)

12/5/04

[Liz]

All of our longings, our hopes and dreams, are represented by the birth of the innocent babe in the manger, the Christ Child.

The Spirit of Christmas, and our spiritual renewal, was never more powerful than it is today, Christmas season 2004.

Christans are more united than ever, and that's a good thing, for Christians, and for the future of America.

Let's pass around the good cheer, and tap our keyboards as one, wishing one and all a very merry and sacred Christmas, and a prosperous and healthy New Year.

[Old Sarge]

I thought you took a recruiting job?

I'm still IN it! They're keeping me on Recruiter orders right up until we mobilize.

Double benefit is, I can do the recruiter stuff, and I'm available full-time to help the readiness guys with the alerts and things that come up. In me, the company has an extra full-timer!

[ru4liberty]

Be blessed...

Mary, Did You Know?

[Liz]

[Leofl]

To the crazy Freeper folk I have had the great pleasure of interacting with over the past year, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. You have made me laugh so my wife thinks I'm crazy, You have touched my soul when the times were rough, You have forced me giggle at myself in the middle of the day and you have prayed with me whenever I needed to call God collect...:)

To Old Sarge, God Speed and we'll be praying for you on your journey. Keep an eye out for the young'un on that journey with you. (My Son will be one of those)

To the folks I look forward to meeting at the Inaugural Ball, Safe Journey's to you and yours.

To Jim Robinson, Merry Christmas and Thanks for the Free Republic, without you I would not have met these "band of misfits"

Above All else I wish you all peace and happiness in the Greatest Country in the World, from the Greatest (:)) State in the Union.

[4mycountry]

LOL! Howdy-do, netmilsmom! I've been here on FR, when I can get a spare moment. :) December is the busiest month of the year!

I'd love some snow, but UPS might break it or something. ^_^ Wouldn't want that!

How've you been? Ready for Christmas?

[4mycountry]

I read that story last year... it's still wonderful. Thanks for posting it.

[writer33]

Merry Christmas to you Star! Thanks for the ping, young lady!

[mylife]

Thanks Star. Thats my kind of Christmas music

[Larry Lucido]

This has been around but it's still worth a chuckle.


Politically Correct Holiday Party

Subject: The Office Party
FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: Everyone
RE: Christmas Party
DATE: December 1
I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23, starting at noon in the banquet room at Luigi's Open Pit Barbecue. No-host bar, but plenty of eggnog! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols...feel free to sing along. And don't Be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus!

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 2
RE: Christmas Party
In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Hanukkah is an important holiday which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our "Holiday Party." The same policy applies to employees who are celebrating Kwanzaa at this time. Happy now?

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 3
RE: Holiday Party
Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table ... you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads "AA Only" you wouldn't be anonymous anymore. How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody?

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 7
RE: Holiday Party
What a diverse company we are! I had no idea that December 2 begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating, drinking and sex during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs. Perhaps Luigi's can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party - the days are so short this time of year - or else package everything for take-home in little foil swans. Will that work? Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Overeaters Anonymous to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the restrooms. Did I miss anything?

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 8
RE: Holiday Party
So December 22 marks the Winter Solstice...what do you expect me to do, a tap-dance on your heads? Fire regulations at Luigi's prohibit the burning of sage by our "earth-based Goddess-worshipping" employees, but we'll try to accommodate your shamanic drumming circle during the band's breaks. Okay???

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
Date: December 9
RE: Holiday Party
People, people, nothing sinister was intended by having our CEO dress up like Santa Claus! Even if the anagram of "Santa" does happen to be "Satan," there is no evil connotation to our own "little man in a red suit." It's a tradition, folks, like sugar shock at Halloween or family feuds over the Thanksgiving turkey or broken hearts on Valentine's Day. Could we lighten up?

---

FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 10
RE: Holiday Party
Vegetarians!?!?!? I've had it with you people!!! We're going to keep this party at Luigi's Open Pit Barbecue whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death," as you so quaintly put it, and you'll get your freaking salad bar, including hydroponic tomatoes. But you know, they have feelings too. Tomatoes scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing them scream right now!

---

FROM: Teri Bishops, Acting Human Resources Director
DATE: December 14
RE: Pat Lewis and Holiday Party
I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pat Lewis a speedy recovery from her stress-related illness and I'll continue to forward Your cards to her at the sanatorium. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay. We hope that this change does not offend anyone.

[TomServo]

Thanks BB! Appreciated. The Best and Merriest Christmas to you and yours...

[Darksheare]

Take care of yourself out there, be careful, and know that we're backing you.
Thank you for still being in uniform.

[luvie]

THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
PRAY FOR PEACE.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL FREEPERS!

[Liz]

Oldie but goodie.

[cybersaint]

Let's remeber what the season is really all about, and it aint the fat guy in the funny red suit, it is about a child born to provide us a way back to God, to make available to us 'eternal life'! God Bless you all this CHRISTmas season!

[NRA1995]

Political Virgin and I were most happy to meet the DC Chapter people last week.....a very Merry Christmas to one and all of you!!!! What a year it's been!

[Liz]

[JustAmy]

Stay safe, Sarge.

Our thoughts and prayers will be with you.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Thank you for your service.

[joanie-f]

Earle Rowell, a man born into a house of skepticism and atheism, studied atheism, was immersed in its tenets all of his childhood and much of his adult life. Late in his life, he wrote the following observations about Christ that I would like to share as a message of Christmas …

I observed the futile amazement with which every skeptic from Celsus to Wells stood around the cradle of the Christ. I wondered why this helpless Babe was thrust into the world at a time when Roman greed, Jewish hate, and Greek subtlety would combine to crush Him. And yet this most powerful, devastating combination ever known in history served only to advance the cause of the Infant who was born in a stable — the purest human being born in the filthiest place in the world.

I marvelled that this poverty-stricken and uneducated plebian, who exercised no authority, commanded no army, held no office, received no honours, wrote no books, and who died in early manhood the most contemptible of deaths, a malefactor on a cross between two criminals — I marvelled that His name is yet the most esteemed name on earth, even among the skeptics themselves.

No unbeliever could tell me why His words are as charged with power today as they were nineteen hundred years ago. Nor could scoffers explain how those pierced hands pulled human monsters with gnarled souls out of a hell of iniquity and overnight transformed them into steadfast, glorious heroes who died in torturing flames, that others might know the love and mighty power of the Christ who had given peace to their souls.

No agnostic could make clear why seemingly immortal empires pass into oblivion, while the glory and power of the murdered Galilean are gathering beauty and momentum with every attack and every age.

Nor could any scoffer explain, as Jesus Himself so daringly foretold, why by telephone, aeroplane, and radio, by rail, horse, and foot, His words are piercing the densest forest, scaling the highest mountains, crossing the deepest seas and the wildest deserts, making converts in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people on earth.

No doubter could tell me how this isolated Jew could utter words at once so simple that a child can understand them and so deep that the greatest thinkers cannot plumb their shining depths. The life, the words, the character of this strange Man are the enigma of history. Any naturalistic explanation makes Him a more puzzling paradox, a fathomless mystery.

But I learned that the paradox was made plain, and the mystery was solved, when I accepted Him simply for what He claimed to be: the son of God come from heaven, a Savior of men. And I learned to thrill at the angels’ words, ‘Behold! Unto you a savior, Christ the Lord!’. And now I have learned the great truth that, though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if He is not born in me, my soul is still forlorn.

Best wishes to you all for a warm and blessed Christmas, and a New Year filled with peace, joy and contentment.

~ joanie

[Minuteman23]

Thank you, Joanie. A beautiful message, and very much appreciated.

I send the same good wishes for Christmas and New Years to you and Rick.

[SiliconValleyGuy]

I think I've read this before, but I didn't know who wrote it, and I don't think I read some of the better parts of it either.

Thank you for posting it here. It's very touching and very true.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family, Joanie and may next year be as good as this one has been.

Dave