A member of my family reaches a significant milestone this week and I couldn’t be more proud.

My sister, Katie, will graduate from nursing school this week, and to say that it has been a long journey to get to this point would be a major understatement.

Patt, a good friend, wanted my feedback and feeble professional guidance on a writing project that she’s working on. She sent the pages with a sticky note attached that said, “Give me your Mama treatment. Be brutally honest.”

By WARREN THROCKMORTON

This Christmas season is just getting stranger as we go.

All over the place people are trying to figure out what to say to each other (“Happy holiday(s),” “Merry Christmas,” “Get out of my way, I want that iPod”) and how to talk about the time of year we are in. I tried just saying Happy December to a few people and they just rolled their eyes. I agree; it didn’t do much for me either.

While I cannot say I look forward to Christmas, I celebrate it, even if less enthusiastically as time passes. Perhaps it’s the “bah humbug factor” that comes with fading eyesight and the other vicissitudes of what is, however — at least for now — still preferable to the alternative.

By JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

“Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy.” — Mother Teresa

As faithful readers may recall, when we travel in Europe we tend to stay in Bed & Breakfasts or family-run inns. We seldom do so in the United States, where we travel mostly in our little RV.

Little did you know!

Gospel writers Mark, Luke, and John don’t even mention the Three Wise Men. The one who does mention them, Matthew, does not specify how many wise men there were. We came up with the number three. In fact, historical accounts reveal the Wise Men and the shepherds visited the Christ child at separate times. There were no warm, sentimental manger scenes as depicted in today’s art.

More than 1,000 people showed up last Thursday at the Georgia International Convention Center to learn more about the issues currently impacting the future of South Fulton County. Front and center in the presentation was the idea that the time has come for something different, something that is needful, something that meets the current and future needs of the unincorporated areas of South Fulton. Unless, of course, those in the unincorporated areas would rather be slowly annexed by the City of Atlanta and the cities in South Fulton: something that is guaranteed to happen.

This was sent to me on the Internet. I cannot improve on it. Author unknown.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright 'round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.”

At the University of Wisconsin, the concept of academic freedom and the right to free speech apparently does not exist for Christian students who happen to also be senior resident dorm assistants or RAs.

There’re two types of people in the world - those who like real ones and those who like fake ones.

Sure, an argument can be made for fake ones. They’re more symmetrical than natural ones. You can get them as small as you like or so big they hardly fit through the front door! Personally, I like the real ones. To me there’s no substitute for what grows naturally. Besides, how can you improve on what’s already perfect?

I don’t know how she found it, but Sarah Sullivan found and responded to a wonderful story we did in September of 2004 on the Price family of Deerfield, Conn., whose descendants ended up here in Fayette and Coweta counties. The story was submitted by Ken Arnold who has been a regular contributor to our genealogy section over the years.

It seems, these days, that someone or some group lurks in every shadow, ready to pounce on a perceived new scratch on the Bill of Rights.

What Germans call a Tannenbaum, Americans call a Christmas tree.

That’s what it is, a tree that is put up in people’s homes at Christmas. They do it whether they celebrate the holiday as a time to mark the birth of Jesus Christ or they just use the holiday as a time to get together with family, exchange gifts and have a good time.

The other day, my quarterly issue of the trendy, glossy magazine Wild Turkey Hunting Strategies arrived. It was lying between my monthly issues of Vogue and InStyle. I took it from the mailbox then took it to the trash.

Many think and believe that we should thank the Germans for our practice of the Christmas tree. I, for me, have no problems saying, “Thank you.” In particular, they say we should thank Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer who brought the church back to a rightful emphasis on “grace” rather than “performance” within the life of the faithful.

Amid the joy of Christmas, there is another side of the Christmas story that is often overlooked. Not everyone was thrilled to learn of the coming of the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus especially was not welcomed by King Herod, who could not stand the thought of anyone competing for his royal position.

Surely December is a strange time of the year! At our church we have a large outside trailer where we store all of our equipment for our church. It houses the riding lawnmowers, lawn signs for everything from turkey shoots, to an outdoor journey to Jerusalem signs, to journey to Bethlehem signs, Rodeo for Jesus signs, and of course, our Christmas outdoor manger figures.

Is Peachtree City mayoral candidate Harold Logsdon an empty suit? Is it enough that he is “not Brown,” the current mayor?

As strange as it seems now, there was a time when I wouldn't allow a Christmas tree in our house. Well-meaning Christians taught me that the symbol was pagan and had no place in a Christian home. Yet, the story of the Christmas tree is part of the story of the life of St. Boniface (born 680 AD in Devonshire, England).

They say reality is stranger than fiction. How did the Egyptians build such perfect structures as the pyramids without the use of modern tools? How did a ship end up on top of one of the highest mountains in Europe? Who drew those giant drawings in South America carved in rock that go on for miles in every direction - the ones that while undecipherable from ground are clearly seen from a plane? Strange, indeed. But there is something stranger out there.

We’re picking up this week with the continuation of the Stamps family of Coweta, submitted by Carol K. Garrett of Chamblee several months ago (sorry ‘bout the delay). Carol’s letter was in response to my column of several years ago on the Stamps family of early Georgia, which I tentatively was connecting to my Noel Johnson and Tempy Stamps in Oglethorpe. Noel and Tempy are said to have moved to Tennessee and lived near the Johnson family which was connected to that of President Andrew Johnson. The families are said to be related, although, for the life of me I can’t make a firm link.

What day is this? You there. Boy! What day is this? December 4, you say? Praise God, I am not too late. Here, take this schilling and buy the fattest Christmas goose you can find. What do you mean what's a shilling, you silly simpleton. Never mind, I shall buy it myself.

The recent clamor for a “date certain” to withdraw our troops from Iraq reminds me of why I thought this war was a bad idea long before the first shot was fired. I doubt many of you would guess my reasons.

Thirty years ago, in the wake of the Vietnam War, historian James Clay Thompson warned: the primary lesson learned was that the United States should never again go to war in a former French colony located on the other side of the globe, in a land with a tropical climate, against an insurgent force supported by a sympathetic communist regime in a contiguous state.. Thompson acknowledged the lesson’s limited applicability.

Excuse me while I kick off my high heels and stomp up on my soapbox.

I have resisted the urge to write about this for a very long time but it is becoming so rampantly rude that it is time to defend the business of good manners.

I would venture to say that most Americans have memories that flood their minds at “Thanksgiving.” Like many of our “religious” holidays certain ideas come to mind during these seasons. Personally, I like “Thanksgiving” as well as Christmas because it is, for me, a time when it “turns my heart toward home.” In fact Dr. James Dobson made a film entitled “Turn Your Heart Toward Home” in which he reminisced the times he and his father would go out into the woods and hunt and be together. He mentioned that of all the accolades and awards and degrees he obtained, these memories remained at the forefront of his childhood..

Playing softball is one of my favorite activities, but this Fall softball began to reveal the sad fact that I'm slowing down. Julio Franco I'm not.

This is one of those e-mail stories. I like it a lot. It's a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at a leading university.