Beech Tree News Network

[Below, we take the letters in “Happy New Year” to remind us of spiritual truths we need to learn and apply in 2023! God bless you in the new year!]

This years Big Dummy Awards will be a bit different.  Instead of taking the dumbest news stories and/or individuals and counting them down, here are the 10 dumbest things to have happened in 2022: Grammar Edition.

Moving from one year to the next may “only” involve the turning of a calendar’s page or changing a single number – from a “2” to a “3” as in “2022” to “2023,” but it also means many new opportunities lie before us.

Hate is a big mouth, and I’m just about tired of the vitriol he’s been spewing.  This year, Hate invaded Ukraine.  He shot up schools and gay night clubs and children’s birthday parties.  He killed a young woman in Iran for not honoring a dress code.  Hate singled out Hispanic and Chinese people, and for good measure, dumped a truckload of anti Semitism onto the Jewish community.

--I have a friend who is interested in my spiritual welfare and has been even at times when I have not been.

--I have a friend who wants the best for me, even at times when I do not want what is best for me.

This final week before Christmas, I’ll wrap up my chronicle of classic Christmas songs

Another Christmas is upon us and I extend warm wishes and a sincere hope that you and your loved ones are in good health and full of happiness.  This season, in particular, I am looking forward to being home in my district with friends and family to enjoy Christmas and spend time with the people I am proud to represent.

I recently read an article entitled “18 Ways Christmas Has Changed since You Were a Kid” (2017). The author, Emma Deering, said that as we age, the Christmas magic changes and listed some of those changes. Three were:  

-Practical gifts are what you want.

Garey is exhausted.  I realized Garey was exhausted when he snapped at me while we were on our way to our Taylorsville Christmas on Saturday.  Sabria asked him what was one fourth of a thousand.  He told her, then started one-fourth-ing larger and larger numbers.  He had entered the millions, and I feared he was headed for the billions, when I said, “Garey, please stop.”

It is with mixed emotions that I begin to write what will be the last of my columns as the State Representative for the 15