by LB 13 Replies latest jw friends
Although we've been inactive for a couple of years now this is the first Christmas we've celebrated. While we know we may get DFed for putting one up we really don't care.
Today while decorating the tree my wife is the happiest I've seen her in years. She's singing downstairs and you just can't wipe that grin off her face. Who knows, she may even be nice to me if this keeps up. Ya never know......
How was your first Christmas post-borg?
Never Squat With Yer Spurs On
LB,
I think Santa know's what you want, and he's gonna get you some thing really good.
If someone lived a trillion X longer than you, and had a billion X more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?
Hey LB,It only gets better..MERRY CHRISTMAS LB ...OUTLAW
Enjoy! Just looking at the lights makes me happy.
I've said it before on this and a couple of other boards. We have some friends that know we've been married 27+ years. Some of them know our witness history, some of them either don't know or don't know jw doctrine about xmas.
The latter two groups are REALLY confused about our Hallmark ornament that says "1988 Our First Christmas Together."
Enjoy your tree. The night we put ours up in that first time I stayed up late just to watch the lights blink.
Hi, LB: This is my first Xmas in 11 years. I had the tree bought and decorated by Thanksgiving. I bought my mother 11 gifts; one for every Xmas I missed with her. She's in shell shock. It's almost like my very first Xmas. I can relate to the smile thing!
ENJOY!
Trot
"Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love".... Aristotle. You can love and obey Christ without intervention from an organization.
Merry Christmas everyone, and LB, like you and your wife, we also have been inactive for several years, but already have been shunned as if df'd. This weekend we set up our first tree. Everything you describe is the same here. It is wonderful and I love looking at all the lights. I can imagine what the Witnesses are saying. I am sure they all know. We have lit up the outside of our house and my husband who never celebrated Christmas has been having such a good time and smiling all the time. We got an 8 foot tree and are still adding decorations to it. It brings back so many good feelings that the holdays meant to me before becoming a JW. I missed it terribly and the years in the Org. I would compensate in many ways for the loss of it. Many "gatherings" and "special days" with presents etc. But they never really were able to give the feelings that the real holidays do now. I love them and am free from guilt from the research I have done. Again, Happy Holidays everone. And Ranchette if you are out there thank you for the card you sent.
We did leave the lights on all night. It was very cheerful and we'll leave them on all day today too. The heck with the power bill. We put 900 lights on it so the only fear is airplanes landing. Next year we are going to push the envelope and put lights on the outside of the house.
Like ARoarer we too have been treated as though we are DFed for a long time. Honestly we don't get that at all. Neither of us have made "apostate" statements in the community. But that only makes it easier to leave. After all what more can they do to us if we're being shunned anyway.
Never Squat With Yer Spurs On
I disassociated in Jan 1997 and couldnt think of anything BUT that first Christmas coming up that December. My kids at that time were 9, 7 and 2, my husband was and is still a JW so I had to do this on my own. When my neighbors found out I was out of the JWs, they came over and brought decorations for me to start our little Christmas, and one gave me a little Charley Brown-ish artifical tree she had extra. One gave me a wreath, one gave me three little village houses with lights inside, and one brought stockings for the kids. Now is that isnt love I dont know what is. When I bought lights, I came home from work one day and my oldest had arranged the lights, still in the boxes mind you, on the floor in the shape of a tree. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I just cant wait to see what the tree will look like Mama." He said smiling. "Can we plug them in?" And I did...and we sat there watching our carpet tree blinking and shining alll evening. I always only decorated the BACK room of the house just for us in deference to my husbands beliefs and so that no JWs could see the decorations. This year...we moved to the FRONT room. We will hide no more. And he even said he didnt mind if we decorated the OUTSIDE of the house, but just wouldnt be assisting me! Progress IS being made. I love Christmas lights...Its hard to take them down tho. But I guess we wouldnt appreciate them as much if they were up all the time :) Merry Christmas everyone.
Read CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE by Former Governing Body Member RAY FRANZ
We set up our tree on Saturday night.... it's the seventh Christmas we've observed.... and I have yet to feel anything besides sheer joy for the occasion.
At the hospital where I work, the nurses in my unit have an annual ornament exchange, and I have participated ever since I started working there. They put a price limit on the ornament of $10 (canadian ) so that nobody gets an ornament that's more valuable than anyone else. Anyway, I always go for the dainty pretty ornaments when I pick out something for my co-workers, usually things people would not buy for themselves. So I was kind of surprised when I saw a rather large box with my name on it. I was so curious about what was inside that I had to open it right away, and one of the other nurses called everyone in to watch me open the gift, as they had heard about what it was and wanted to see it too. The wrapping paper was ripped off (I did try to do it carefully but it was too slow-going and I was dying to see what it was) and there it was:
a music box in the shape of a wooden chest with a domed lid. There was folk art painted on the outside of teddy bears and "JOY" "NOEL" and other holiday motifs. I wound the mechanism a couple of times around, and slowly opened the box. On the inside of the lid was red fabric draped across at about mid-height fastened across with gold cording. There is a white teddy bear figurine in the centre turning around and around, and several other figurines of teddy bears dressed in skating attire moving back and forth. It is SO beautiful!! The music that tinkled out was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I was just so overwhelmed by its prettiness and the thoughtfulness of the person who gave it to me that tears began to stream down my face. I think what happened was that the full force of what I had missed (and by extension what my parents had missed, along with my brothers) over the 25 years of my childhood and young adulthood as a JW were crystalized in that moment of joy and gratitude and love for other people. My faith in the goodness of people has been restored over the past few Christmases, something that had been robbed from us by the Grinches in the WTS. Last year, the kindness of strangers touched us with two wonderful anonymous gifts: a huge basket full of Christmas goodies, and the complete fixings for a turkey dinner, as well as a money order for $100. To this day I have no idea where they came from, but again, I was overcome by the kindness of people whom we were taught to view with derision and scorn them as being unrighteous, wicked people deserving destruction. I have never felt more ashamed of the way I was as a JW, than in those moments when their goodness surely outshone my own.
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!
Merry Christmas to everyone
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
