This experience with the Mansion, with Red, the people there and some very generous readers of the blog has clarified my understanding of Christmas, and given me – I am neither a Christian nor a conventionally religious person – a way to celebrate this holiday in keeping with the spirit of the person in whose name we celebrate it.

I have never been able to get past all of the Disney distortion of family life, of the commercialization and the marketing and the hype. I also wonder at the hypocrisy of the many people who claim to be Christian but don’t seem to know what it really means, and I say this with humility, as an outsider and seeker.

The people who have been so generous with the residents of the Mansion, and made them so happy, have also helped me to be clear about Christmas. To give me a way to love it and celebrate. The Mansion is not the whole of my beautiful Christmas experience. I am celebrating my life, my life, my farm, the animals, my daughter and granddaughter.

It was all so simple, really, that I had trouble seeing it through the fog. This is the third of my audio messages, and I hope you all have a great holiday.