T’is the season to be jolly and have good will towards others. Tomorrow is Christmas!

Many of you will have family gathered at your homes for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts and stories about what has happened in your lives since the last time you were together.

Others will go out of town to relatives’ homes for the annual Christmas dinner. Please drive safely and soberly. For some people, every year the joy of the season is stolen by an accident while on the road traveling to or from the family gathering where the only guests other than family and friends should be joy and happiness, not sorrow and confusion.

For most of us in Picayune, Christmas also is the birthday of Jesus Christ. As you attend church tomorrow, remember Christ’s message was one of peace and forgiveness. All of us, Christian or otherwise, should take that message to heart in our lives. This world would certainly be a better, less violent place if that message were universally accepted.

Another thought for the day as we sit down to Christmas dinner – charity. There are people among us who have not enough to eat. But on Christmas day a large number of organizations – locally, nationally and internationally – seek to provide Christmas dinner to those that wouldn’t have one otherwise. This is a thought for all the time.

As we give thanks tomorrow for the family and friends around us, the presents that were under the Christmas tree as the day started and for our relative good fortune, let us remember to give thanks for the soldiers, sailors, coast guardsmen, airmen and marines who keep this nation safe and secure from our enemies.

Have a very Merry Christmas, and may peace and joy always be with you and yours.