It just turned Christmas in London, so I'm about half a day late in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Of course, we don't really know when the first Christmas was, other than it was within a few days or weeks of one of the Roman censuses circa 6 B.C.-1 A.D. Many scholars put it at circa 4-3 B.C. but at least one person claims to peg the exact date at 2000 years before Saturday August 22, 1998.

IMHO it doesn't matter the exact date, what is important is Who Jesus is and what He did at the end of his earthly life. The first 30-odd years of his life, plus the eternity and all of history that preceeded it, were just as much a time of preparation to The Ressurection as the 4 weeks of advent are a preparation for Christmas or the 6 weeks of Lent are a preparation for Easter.

Merry Christmas everyone.

And Happy Easter.