It’s no secret that this is my favorite time of the year. I LOVE the holiday season. I get geeked up (more so than ever) starting around Halloween and it all builds around Thanksgiving and intensifies there after. Soon after turkey day is when I start decorating the house for Christmas inside and outside. Here are some pictures and stories behind the traditions. As you can see on the right, I started my Christmas countdown on twitter from my iPhone early.

I got all three kids to help me this year so Santa Pai had elves! Nicholas is 9, Matthew 5 and Rachel 3. She was extremely excited to help out because it was her first time to do so.

We started with the large-sized nativity scene which includes the three wisemen, a shepherd, some animals and of course Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus. Next to the baby Jesus is a spot that shines a light into the branches above them into the night.

Next to the nativity scene is a Huge inflatable JOY and a giant snowman. There’s also a Christmas train that lights up in between the snowman and the nativity scene. I guess it’s like a polar express.

The other staples are the massive lit wreaths that I hang on both sides of the front of the house as well as a enormous red ribbon that I hang over the front door walkway of the house. I use a red spotlight to highlight the ribbon at night which looks great. There’s also a dozen large candy canes that line the walk to the front door.

Here are some photos of everything.

I also enjoy changing the flags outside all year round depending on the season. We do it a couple of times during the holidays of course. Here are some of them.

Inside, there are other traditional decorations. We got a new pre-lit tree because the previous one was actually way too big! The new one is perfect and looks more full. We hang ornaments that all mean something like baby’s first Christmas for each child and one for each year of their life as well as for ourselves such as our first house, the Olympic games in Atlanta, etc. etc.

As for me personally, my favorite movie of all-time is Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” so I collect everything about that movie. I have books, ornaments, posters, action figures, and even the rare collectable set of buildings and figures that Target sold a decade ago for a limited time. Here are some photos.

Other traditions are the Elf on the Shelf which we call Elfish (like Elvis). He appears in a new spot every morning magically so the kids get a kick out of finding where he is when they get up. It’s magic I tell ya! We also use this tin Santa to count down each day starting from 24 days out. The kids pull a heart-shaped number off each day and place it in his toy bag.

So there you have a taste of a very Pai Christmas. I cap it off every year by watching It’s a Wonderful Life as well as a couple of Christmas Carol movies. I love the 1951 Alistair Simm version the best but love all of the renditions including the awful ones like Henry “The Fonz” Winkler as Scrooge in “An American Christmas Carol”.

In any event, I love Christmas time like everybody does. I try to savor each and every moment that I can because like life it all flies by so quickly. Before you know it, the entire Holiday season is gone. I do my best to enjoy as much of it as I can. I also try to keep that Christmas spirit all year long much like Ebenezer Scrooge supposedly did after his experiences with the ghosts of Christmas. I love how people seem happier and kinder during the holidays too. I truly wish we all could make it last longer. If not all year long, as often as possible.

It’s been 25 years since “A Christmas Story” was released in 1983. Based on writing from the narrator, Jean Sheppard and directed by Bob Clark (from Porky’s fame!), it’s become a national Christmas classic. Much like “It’s a Wonderful Life” became a Christmas tradition thanks to reruns on television, A Christmas Story followed the same path to the hearts of American families.

Though it was set in a long ago era, every generation can appreciate its sentiment. Who doesn’t remember the extreme joy of Christmas as a kid and the anguish of longing for a gift that you knew you wouldn’t ever get. This is a timeless classic that people will watch every holiday season.

This anniversary will be sad because the director Bob Clark (67) was tragically killed in a head on automobile accident in 2007 along with his 22-year old son by a drunk driver. Jean Sheppard passed away at 78 in 1999 of natural causes. Darren McGavin who played the dad passed away in 2006 at 83.

Here are some clips from the movie including the first 10 minutes of the movie, the original trailer, movie review from Roger Ebert * Gene Siskel and a reunion of all the kids from the movie.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_en_mo/christmas_story_celebration

Thanksgiving is almost here and the past several days online has had a common theme for me. Everywhere I turned, the subject matter of homelessness. It started when I shared a great article called “Famous People Who Have Been Homeless”. It was an inspirational piece because it showed how anybody, even powerful rich famous people can wind up destitute and on the streets. It also showed how they managed to get back on their feet and achieve greatness.

Well, the response to the share was great. A friend LilPecan and I had the following conversation about it:

LilPecan eventually reposted her homeless post along with new comments in an excellent piece called “Does My Homelessnes Bother You?”

Days later I shared this message and YouTube video about the 11 year old boy that died, Brenden Foster. His dying wish was to help the homeless and that wish came true as a bunch of people made sure of it.

Then another friend, @JillFoster posted this video on Utterli about Homelessness and a personal story.

That brings us to today as I think about Thanksgiving and how grateful I am about all the blessings in my life. My professional and personal life has been amazingly blissful. Still, my heart aches whenever I learn about the Brenden Fosters of the world and realize that despite all of the technological breakthroughs we’ve experience we still have not figured out a way to stamp out homelessness. Given the current state of the economy and escalating unemployment, increasing numbers of US—not THEM—will become homeless. The old adage is true, “There but for the grace of God go I”.

Please be thankful for all the blessings in your life. Also, try to help any of our fallen brothers and sisters as much as possible. Anything we do for one, benefits us all. Being home for the holidays means so much more to me now because I’m thankful to have a place called home. Too many of us don’t.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Here’s Josh Groban and “Thankful” followed by the beautiful lyrics

THANKFUL

Somedays We Forget
To Look Around Us
Somedays We Can’t See
The Joy That Surrounds Us
So Caught Up Inside Ourselves
We Take When We Should Give.
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be.
And On This Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See.
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though We All Can Still Do More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For.
Look Beyond Ourselves
There’s So Much Sorrow
It’s Way Too Late To Say
I’ll Cry Tomorrow
Each Of Us Must Find Our Truth
It’s So Long Overdue
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be
And Every Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though We All Can Still Do More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For.
Even With Our Differences
There Is A Place We’re All Connected
Each Of Us Can Find Each Other’s Light
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be
And On This Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though This World Needs So Much More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For