Soap Box

*NOTE* Charlie is taking a break from his soapboxes through the holidays, This coming Friday we will post the traditional "A Carolina Christmas Carol" story which will be the current soapbox until around the New Year. Until then, here's a Rewind from 2009. - TeamCDB

I hope it's cold this Christmas. I hope it's cold enough to have a big log fire burning in the den. I hope it's cold enough so you can see your breath in the air outside.

Hazel just has a way with decorating, and our house looks like Christmas all over with five lighted trees, nativity scenes, nutcrackers of different sizes and figurines of Santa dressed in Western attire.

There's a lighted Christmas village and red ribbons and bows adorn the lights in the dining room. Even the front gate has a wreath and an old horse-drawn wagon next to the flagpole is covered in lights.

We have a cross at the top of the hill that stays lit during the Christmas season along with some gaslights we turn on for the season and hope the wind won't keep blowing them out.

There's no doubt that it's Christmas at our house, and when I step off the bus after the year's touring is finished I'm all ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with family and friends, which includes our employee's Christmas party with Santa dropping by to make all the little ones happy and the passing out of year-end bonus checks which has a tendency to make the big ones smile.

I'm big on tradition and year after year we do the same things, and I wouldn't dream of changing any of them.

Christmas Eve means an early candlelight service at our church and back home for an evening gathering of family and friends.

We share food and drink and my longtime friend and employee, Roger Campbell, recites a cowboy poem for everybody.

As the evening winds down I read a Christmas story I wrote and Saint Luke's version of the birth of Christ. After that, I go around the room and ask everybody what's on their mind.

Of course, they're not required to say anything but almost everybody tends to say at least a few words. Some people keep it light and some tend to open their hearts, I've even seen misty eyes during that part of the evening.

The evening ends with a toast to whatever we feel like toasting.

We always open our gifts on Christmas morning depending on what time we can get Charlie Jr. out of bed and up to our house and after that, it's time to cook.

Now the only time I actually get involved with kitchen mechanics is Christmas and Thanksgiving when I don my chef's hat and apron and proceed to make my cornbread dressing, a dish much revered by those who put their feet under our Christmas table.

I make a pan of oyster dressing and for those less adventurous souls a pan of plain. Of course, any meeting of me and pots and pans is going to be messy, and I always end up spilling some of my tasty concoction on the floor. Hazel isn't happy about it but I guess she figures the results are worth the cleanup.

I just love Christmas and I've seen some 73 of them counting this year, of course, I don't remember the first couple very well but to me, it's always been about being with family and friends.

I've only spent one Christmas away from family. I was working in Wichita, Kansas and only had Christmas day off which didn't allow me enough time to get back to the east coast and my family.

I was young and single but it was a lonely Christmas. I can't imagine what the men and women who serve our nation in many desolate outposts of the world go through at this time of the year.

We should never forget the sacrifice these young people make to keep America free.

We should never forget that they are not pawns to be used at the whim of some politician, but America's finest and if we are not going to commit to complete victory over our enemy we should never again put them on foreign soil.

We should always remember that behind those uniforms are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and parents who love and miss their families just as much as we would if we were in the same situation.

My heart and my prayers go out to you soldier wherever you're defending freedom this Christmas season.

May complete victory be yours, may you be safe and ever conscious and confident that yours is a righteous cause.

It is my wish and my prayer that next year you'll celebrate this blessed season with the ones you love.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America.

Charlie Daniels