It’s taken me a while, but I am truly feeling the Christmas spirit.  I’m going to spend much of the holiday with my family, and the good news is we all get along great.  We’re not planning huge gift exchanges, just a chance to spend time together.

I’ve become aware lately that Christmas can be an especially stressful time for many people.  I have friends and family members who have communicated to me that this season is the most difficult time of the year for them.

So, in the spirit of being even-handed, I thought I’d list some of the things I like most about Christmas 2009 and then also list some of the concerns that others have passed on to me.  Please feel free to add your own thoughts — both blessings and burdens for this season.

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If you don’t like hearing about men crying while watching sappy Christmas movies, this post is not for you.  But if you appreciate that movies, even sappy ones, can make you cry even if you have seen them 10 times, this post may be for you.

On Sunday morning I sat with my two youngest sons and watched “Mr Krueger’s Christmas.”  I expected them to be bored — anything that is not animated usually turns them off — but they were not.  They were actually riveted as Mr. Krueger gave his thanks to the baby Jesus, while their dad sat holding them, tears streaming down his cheeks.

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According to a couple of reports here and here, the Church will be adding another goal to the three-fold mission of the church, which is “to care for the poor and needy.”    If there was ever a doubt that President Monson is going to turn out to be a great prophet, this news, in my opinion, erases all doubt.

Who better to remind us of our duty to help the poor and needy than the prophet who has spent most of his life in service of others and is famous for his selfless attitude toward the widows and helpless?

A special shout-out to David H. Sundwall for breaking this story on his blog asoftanswer.com.

It will be fascinating to see how this new Church mission is manifested in our stakes and wards.

Slowly, the anti-war right is gaining momentum. Jason Chaffetz, a freshman Republican congressman from Utah, says it’s time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

Good for him.

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Last week the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in the UK confirmed that its computer had been hacked.  It has also confirmed that thousands of e-mails and other information have been taken public.

The CRU is one of the leading research units behind the theory that increased CO2 is causing global warming (this theory is called anthropogenic global warming or AGW).  The released e-mails are extremely damaging to the scientists involved, and, depending on how this all plays out, this incident could end up being the end of the global warming movement as we know it.  Some of the leading climate scientists are likely to have their reputations destroyed and some of them could end up in jail.  Leading environmentalists, sympathetic to the AGW theory, are warning that Phil Jones, the director of the CRU, should resign and that environmentalists need to be aware how serious this scandal is.

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