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September 2026

August 2026

Triumph Over Tragedy
08/31/2026

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained/Lost
08/30/2026

A Gallery of Neighbors: The Village Art Group’s Group Show
08/28/2026

A New and Improved Way to Stay Safer Online
08/28/2026

A Trip to The Geffen Galleries
08/28/2026

Barrier Free Living - A Path to Living a More Independent Lifestyle
08/28/2026

Conversations with Art
08/28/2026

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
08/28/2026

Member Connections with Music Conductor Bill Bing
08/28/2026

Pasadena Heritage Walking Tour
08/28/2026

In Their Hands
08/23/2026

Ease of Being: Managing the stuff of everyday life
08/20/2026

A Tribute to Fire Debris Remediators and Their Super-Sized Dump Trucks
08/18/2026

Really Irene?
08/15/2026

There Is A Risk
08/09/2026

2026 Year in Review
08/03/2026

A Message From Your Newly Elected President
08/03/2026

Neighborhoods Within the Village
08/03/2026

Reflection from PUSD Intern Isabella "Izzy" Roberts
08/03/2026

Reflection on Service & Joy from 2025/26 President Dick Myers
08/03/2026

The Villager Engagement Team Welcomed 54 New Villagers
08/03/2026

Treasurer’s Report
08/03/2026

What Activity! The Cultural Activities Team Report
08/03/2026

An Even Exchange
08/01/2026

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Reflections on Christmas Past

By John Tuite
Posted: 12/01/2021
Tags:
Men's Time Topic Discussion for Tuesday, December 7th 

Welcome Men of the Village!  It is December and all over town nobody could wait to dress their houses, trees, and bushes with many colored lights.  Others dragged out those blow-up figures of Santa, reindeer, snowmen, and all the many Santa’s helpers!  We even have fake snow on the lawns to delight the Californians who never had a rusty shovel in the garage.  And every few blocks, a house that celebrates what it is all about, the little babe in the barn, Mary and Joseph trying to keep the farm animals from licking the little one so fresh from heaven!

So, Christmas is another year in the making, and we have all cherished memories from childhood of what it meant, the preparations, the food, the gifts, the tree, the anticipation, perhaps the disappointment, perhaps also the worship, the crib, the little playlet where we were the cow, the goat, the sheep, or just an ole dog, standing around worshiping the little baby in our song.

In our house we always went to 5:30 a.m. Mass, and then home to open our presents, which were pretty much clothes or new shoes, and then one special present, like a baseball glove, or a tennis racket, or for my brother (boy, was I jealous!) a new bicycle!  And then we decorated the tree…I was of the opinion that icicles should be thrown from 3-5 feet…otherwise it could take an hour putting them on one at a time.  I lost that argument every year…that’s the way it was for the baby of the family!

Midday was Christmas meal, turkey, homemade stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and then the piece-de-resistance, Mom’s Irish puddin’, which had hung in the kitchen for a week or two to “age”! That was as close as I got to Brandy as a kid!  What a feast!

So, let’s tell our story of the Christmas Carol.  Remind us of things we haven’t thought of for sixty, seventy years.  Tell us what it was like at Christmas at your house…or perhaps at Hannukah!

John Tuite
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