Welcome to the very special Christmas Edition of the Online Murphy Times where we chronicle the continuing adventures of that intrepid Murphy Family as they celebrate Christmas, Murphy Style.
As always, please E-Mail us here at kevinmurfy@aol.com. Remember, all such E-Mail will become the sole property of the Murphy Family and will not be returned, even if you say "please". It will, however, be replied to -- so don't say I didn't warn you.
In this edition (12/21/96) we find the Murphy Fearless Leader being swallowed by a giant, the Other Murphy Fearless Leader in her Christmas Baking Frenzy, and the Fruit of the Murphy Loins enjoying the whole Christmas season.
Let's remember what Christmas is all about:
And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were some sheperds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them , and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were frightened.
And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,Glory to God in the highest,And on Earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
And now, in no particular order (except I'm first) we provide our regular columns:
Kevin's View
Why are these men smiling? They are now much richer than they were 15 minutes ago. And Kevin was swallowed up into the belly of a giant, the Superhumongous Aerospace Corpation of America. It will be the best because it is the biggest: over 200,000 employees, and an anticipated 48 billion dollars in revenue in 1997. The consolidation in the defense/aerospace industry continues without let up. Soon there will be just Boeing, Lockheed(-Martin), and Northrup(-Grumman). Anybody else will be insignificant or a subcontractor.
We drones were of course worried about the most important aspects of the merger -- what changes will there be in benefits, will we keep everyday casual day, and will we still get all the time off at Christmas we're used to? We know the big boys will take care of each other, but we'll have to fend for ourselves.
Denise's View
There are many Christmas Traditions in the Murphy Family: driving around to look at people's Christmas lights, putting up a Christmas tree and taking it to Queeny Park to be mulch afterwards, an advent calender with treats for the kids, putting up the Christmas decorations inside and out the day after Thanksgiving (weather permitting), the Christmas Eve Service at Winstanley Baptist Church (which has not varied in the 8 years Kevin has been there) with the Logsdon Family followed by dinner and the family exchange of gifts at Gene and Verla's, and Christmas day at our house for Santa's gifts. There is also the baking of the Christmas Cookies. This year was a little less baking than usual. We warmed up with m&m cookies, then made bark covered pretzels, fudge, and decorated sugar cookies for Kevin to take to work, and finished with 5 dozen for the cookie exchange at church. At least, Denise keeps saying this is it, but we do have a few days left until the big day. I hope we saved one to put out for Santa, or he and the kids will be disappointed.
Kid's Korner
The number of days left to Christmas has dwindled to the point that Kyle can keep count with Erin. Kyle has an idea of what is going to happen Christmas, but is excited mainly because he figures it will be even better than putting up the Christmas tree, which was a BIG DEAL itself. Erin of course remembers past Christmases and is excited mainly by the loot, but the whole Santa thing is still pretty exciting, like, I see him all over and he looks different each time (They're not the REAL Santa, he has a lot of helpers), how does he go to everybodies house in one night(I don't know how, I just know he does.).
Erin and Kyle are in children's Christmas program at church -- Erin as Mary, and Kyle as the Star. Erin has her speaking part down cold, it's the singing that has her worried. Kyle just has fun being with the "big" kids. He doesn't have a speaking part to learn, but we just hope he can turn on his big smile in front of an audience. We all enjoyed our trip to Santa's Magical Kingdom with our friends the Pollards. We packed 9 people (4 adults, 5 kids) into our new mini-van for over an hour (45 minutes in line, 20 throught the display) to enjoy the light show together. Now that Erin & Kyle have sat on Santa's lap twice (once at the mall, once at Erin's Daisy party), they're sure to get twice as many presents. Maybe Kyle wants two fire-trucks, since that is what he invariably asks for. I sure hope Santa brings it!
Return me to the OMT index, please.
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Contents copyright Kevin Murphy 1996. All rights reserved.