Jesus's

In connection with my last post, here is my address of the spellcheck not recognizing Jesus's as a word.

The fact is that some say you can show possession with Jesus by simply adding an apostrophe to the end (Jesus'), the issue I have with that is that there is only one Jesus. I'm not actually a believer in the power of spellcheck, I use it to catch mistakes, but I do not rely on it to catch all my mistakes. I know it doesn't catch them all and in this case it is flat out wrong.

We have options when it comes to language and spelling. That's part of what makes it all so confusing. You can show possession by adding only an apostrophe to a person's name that ends in an S. But that violates the rules. The rules say apostrophe before S if the noun is singular. You can spell cancelled with two Ls, like that, or with one, canceled. Tomatoes, potatoes, and tornadoes have an E before the S. Who decided tomatoes and potatoes need that E, but tornados doesn't.

This is turning into a random rant, but here's the final note... Who decided it is necessary to add an 's to make something plural, and how did that idea get spread around? We see it all the time and it is so very wrong. Please, don't ever do it.

36 Days

Yesterday, a lady on the radio had the audacity to suggest that we are knee deep into the Christmas season. I, of course, yelled at her, but I don't think she heard me. We are just getting started. Our toes are barely covered in Christmas-y-ness. Yet, people seem to think that December initiates Christmas wind-down mode. What is up with that? I strongly dislike the radio stations that quit playing Christmas music on December 26, and am thoroughly disgruntled when TV stations stop playing holiday movies before New Years. The season doesn't even begin until December 25.

I e-mailed our priest a couple of days ago asking about adding a short Christmas program for the Religious Education students after a Mass in December. His response gave the go ahead, but he also said, and I don't think entirely in jest, that it would actually be an Advent program. He is completely right! We are preparing for Christmas. Christmas comes when Jesus is born.

Christmas is definitely highly commercialized, and I have to admit I love all the Christmas stuff: lights, food, decorations, gift wrapping, cards, songs. But, Christmas is completely about joy. We should be joyful because our Savior was born. Huzzah! Not already tired of all the holiday parties, gift giving obligation, and family gathering.

I love celebrating the season for as long as I can.... October 10 is my Christmas-tune-listening start-date. But, our real Christmas celebrating should be concentrated on those good, old twelve days of Christmas. Which don't actually start until December 25. Boy, am I glad I still have 36 days to celebrate. I like to celebrate Jesus's birth everyday, but you get less funny looks singing "O Come Let Us Adore Him" in November than you do in April.

And another thing... I just ran a spell check and the computer is tell me that "Jesus's" is incorrect. That will have to be addresses in a later post.