Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family!

Merry Christmas to all of you from all of the BOLTON’s. We love you and want you to know it! It has been a great Christmas Season starting in October with Pandora Christmas Music all the way until Today! We are grateful for the Savior, His Birth, His Life, and His Continuing Presence in our lives.

For the last few days I have been mulling over some of the Quotes that run through my mind this time of year (some new, some old). And for my own pleasure, I would like to post some of them without citations. You can decide where they come from, take a quiz, tell me your score. Some may appear not to be to Christmas Related, but they have come to mean Christmas to me….Enjoy!

1.  And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

2. “Business!”.…“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

3. Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, Close by me forever, and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, and fit us for heaven, to live with Thee there.

4. “And now as pertaining to this perfect Atonement, I testify that it took place at Gethsemane and at Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his Witnesses. And in the coming day I will feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God's almighty Son and he is our Savior and Redeemer and that Salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.”

5. “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.”

6. I am not satisfied with the conduct of this division. Some of you men are under the impression having been at Anzio entitles you not to wear neckties. Well you're wrong. Neckties will be worn in this area! And look at the rest of your appearance. You're a disgrace to the outfit. You're soft! You're sloppy! You're unruly! You're undisciplined!
[pause] And I never saw anything look so wonderful in my whole life. Thank you all!

7. “If there were no Easter, there would be no Christmas.

8.  Imagine a big outfit like Macy's...putting the spirit of Christmas ahead of the commercial.

9. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

10.  “Tell me then,” he cried brokenly, “since my life has been so little worth, how came I here at all?”

“Through the mercy of the King”- came the clear low reply.

“But how have I failed so wretchedly,” he asked, “in all the purpose of my life? What could I have done better? What is it that counts here?”

“Only that which is truly give,” answered the bell-like voice. “Only that good which is done for the love of doing it. Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master thought. Only those labors in which the sacrifice is greater than the reward. Only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself.”