{"id":2593,"date":"2008-11-11T21:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T21:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas.html"},"modified":"2008-11-11T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T21:44:00","slug":"its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s beginning to look a lot like Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRpGLk879iI\/AAAAAAAADTk\/x18iHv9WZNA\/s1600-h\/610x.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin:0px auto 10px;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 400px;height: 239px\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRpGLk879iI\/AAAAAAAADTk\/x18iHv9WZNA\/s400\/610x.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>They&#8217;ve strung the lights across Austin Street here in Forest Hills, and the trees are going up in shop windows, and the catalogs are spilling out of the mailbox. <\/p>\n<p>And, to make the seasonal readiness complete, The Anchoress has supplied <a href=\"http:\/\/theanchoressonline.com\/2008\/11\/11\/lets-go-christmas-shopping\/\">a terrific collection of links<\/a> to some online religious gifts-n-goodies providers. <\/p>\n<p>Personally, I&#8217;m a fan of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.holyspiritmonasterygifts.com\/\">Trappist fruitcake<\/a> (the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gethsemanifarms.org\/\">bourbon-saturated stuff<\/a> from Kentucky is heavenly, too, and you have <i>got<\/i> to try their fudge) but I can also vouch for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trappistine.com\/specials.asp\">delicious candy from Iowa<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Whatever. <\/p>\n<p>Pay a visit to <a href=\"http:\/\/theanchoressonline.com\/\">The A<\/a>.  Your holiday shopping will be infinitely easier.  And your friends will love you for your thoughtfulness. <\/p>\n<p>(Your Humble Blogger has also done some online shopping <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heifer.org\/site\/c.edJRKQNiFiG\/b.183217\/\">here<\/a> in years past &#8212; what could be better than giving animals that you don&#8217;t have to clean up after?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They&#8217;ve strung the lights across Austin Street here in Forest Hills, and the trees are going up in shop windows, and the catalogs are spilling out of the mailbox. And, to make the seasonal readiness complete, The Anchoress has supplied a terrific collection of links to some online religious gifts-n-goodies providers. Personally, I&#8217;m a fan&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>It&#039;s beginning to look a lot like Christmas - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It&#039;s beginning to look a lot like Christmas - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They&#8217;ve strung the lights across Austin Street here in Forest Hills, and the trees are going up in shop windows, and the catalogs are spilling out of the mailbox. And, to make the seasonal readiness complete, The Anchoress has supplied a terrific collection of links to some online religious gifts-n-goodies providers. Personally, I&#8217;m a fan&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-11T21:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRpGLk879iI\/AAAAAAAADTk\/x18iHv9WZNA\/s400\/610x.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"They&#8217;ve strung the lights across Austin Street here in Forest Hills, and the trees are going up in shop windows, and the catalogs are spilling out of the mailbox. And, to make the seasonal readiness complete, The Anchoress has supplied a terrific collection of links to some online religious gifts-n-goodies providers. 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