Christmas is over. Grandpa went into the hospital the Wednesday before. The Tsumani hit the day after. Strange holiday season. Amy and Joel spent Christmas with the Sager family. That left just Emily and I to sit on the steps leading to the downstairs goodies Christmas morning, but neither she nor I assumed the usual spot. Christmas was spent releiving grandma and cheering grandpa in Heartland East Hospital. Finally, christmas night i demanded that something be done that even slightly resembled Christmas even without Amy, Joel, Grandpa and Grandma. So we opened presents with the four remaining and that appeased my need for tradition somewhat.

The Christmas season proved to be much more disappointing for some than knowing my siblings were celebrating four hours away and my grandparents were eating hospital food instead of mother's turkey and gravy. The skidmore baby and father live without their mother and wife. Tsunami victims (those who survived) walk with their dead in their arms seeking more answers on where their other lovers and children might be found.

What if the Christ child had been swept out of the Madonna's arms by a wall of water that crashed over their bodies set so sweetly next to the shepherds? Maybe it was. What would it have felt like to see your beloved, perfect oldest son sagging off wooden beams, his flesh barely attached with metal stakes? Would it have seemed like drowning as the crowd took him away to flog and beat? Would she have screamed "no, God no!" as the roar of the crowd filled her mouth stifling her cries?

Did God feel like he was drowning? dying? when his Son died and few even cared?

How few of us care about the millions washed out to sea? How many of us will care nine months from now when our donation checks have been cashed and forgotten, and the devastating pictures no longer haunt our televisions?

Many many many. Hopefully. It seems so unreal. So like the "end times" thriller movies produced in hollywood. "Huge wave distroys the world! Can Tom Cruise save us?" And War of the Worlds is coming out in the theatres this year. Depressing. Remind me not to see that. The news on television is tragic enough. And its real.