Time to lighten up your weary hearts, with a little story.

The teacher was very curious about how each of her students celebrated Christmas. She called on young Patrick Murphy. "Tell me Patrick, what do you at Christmas time?" she asked.



Patrick addressed the class, "Me and my twelve brothers and sisters go to midnight Mass and we sing hymns, then we come home, and we put mince pies by the back door and hang up our stockings. The we go to bed and wait for Father Christmas to come with toys."



"Very nice, Patrick," she said. "Now Jimmy Brown, what do you do at Christmas?"



"Me and my sister also go to church with Mom and Dad and we sing carols, and after we get home we put cookies and milk by the chimney and we hang up our stockings. We hardly sleep, waiting for Santa Claus to bring us toys," Jimmy replied.



"That's also very nice Jimmy," she said.



Realizing there was a Jewish boy in the class and not wanting to leave him out of the discussion, she asked Isaac Cohen the same question. "Now Isaac, what do you do at Christmas?"



Isaac said, "Well, we go for a ride, and then we sing a Christmas carol or a hymn or whatever it is."



Surprised at his answer, the teacher questioned further. "Tell us what you sing."



"Well, it's the same thing every year. Dad comes home from the office. We all get into the Rolls Royce, and we drive to his toy factory. When we get inside, we look at all the empty shelves and we sing, 'What a Friend we Have in Jesus.'



"Then we all go to the Bahamas."