Some unidentified clever person has worked out that your capacity for chocolate has a mathematical application. Try this out (it doesn’t work if you don’t like chocolate!)

1.  First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)

2.  Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3.  Add 5

4.  Multiply it by 50 – now you will need the calculator!

5.  If you have already had your birthday this year, add 1759. If you haven't, add 1758

6.  Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should now have a three digit number and the first digit of this number is your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are your age! How do they come up with these things?
Anyway, back to the chocolate. It is associated with celebration, so much so that one manufacturer has capitalised on it and used it as a brand name (Celebration that is). But Christmas isn’t the only time large quantities of chocolate get eaten. Easter Eggs are already being produced, ready to go on the shelves early in the New Year. Which is a reminder that Christmas and Easter are linked.
There is a story of a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children; after many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the lift.

As she waited for the lift car to arrive she was feeling what so many of us feel at time of the year -- overwhelming pressure to go to every school event and every party, the effort (and cost) of getting in all the special food and treats, searching out that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, make sure we don't forget anyone on our Christmas card list, etc., etc.

Finally the lift doors opened on an already crowded car. She pushed her way in and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn't take it anymore and said, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.”

From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, “Don't worry. We’ve already crucified him.”

I hope you have a really great Christmas, especially as you remember what it’s really all about.

 

Have a really blessed Christmas                                         
Graham Robinson