Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. Remember the reason for the season.

Jan, Georgia and I are all awake now and attempting to wake up with some old fashioned java juice. Nothing like a cup of Maxwell House to get your day started.

The turkey is in the oven (just a small breast) and I hope the kids will start wandering in and out by noon. Everyone is busy today with many places to go. Jan and I are staying put as this is the first Christmas she has not had to work in many years.

This story is so sad although perhaps they can come to a compromise next year.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese city has beaten the Grinch at his own game, banning Christmas trees from shopping malls, restaurants and other public places because they pose a fire hazard, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Chen Ying, deputy mayor of Zhuhai, a city of 1.3 million people in southern China, said restaurants, malls, grocery stores and other entertainment venues had to remove trees and other "flammable decorations" immediately.

"Those that fail to rectify the situation will be subject to legal measures like suspension or closure," the Southern Metropolis Daily quoted Chen on its Web site (www.nddaily.com) as saying on Wednesday.

The crackdown on Christmas trees was part of a three-month campaign to boost fire-prevention standards that started this week in Zhuhai, directly across from the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.

The Zhuhai ban came the same day that President Hu Jintao "reached out" to religious believers in China where commercial Christmas trappings have become increasingly ostentatious in recent years.

The manager of a Zhuhai karaoke bar ordered a Christmas tree last week and was not happy with the new regulation.