Hi neighbors. If you have mail going out of the country, you're probably too late to get it there for Christmas. I'm not certain, but I think the deadline has passed on Christmas cards and letters as well.

Oh well, don't despair. There is still the Internet with e-cards available cheap or free. I haven't told my family yet, but this year they may all get e-cards.

The availability of instant card and letter sending makes us lazy I think. At least it seems to have done that for me.

I put off almost all forms of communication until the last possible moment, then zap it out through e-mail.

One of the drawbacks of this plan is forgetting to mail or e-mail altogether.

Another problem with waiting till the last minute and doing a rush job of writing -- some of my e-mails don't make a lot of sense.

I'm grateful e-cards are pretty self-explanatory.

Have you got your shopping finished? Is it ever finished? I always end up thinking of just "one more thing" on Christmas Eve or even Christmas morning.

There's not much point of realizing I forgot to get the perfect gift for someone on Christmas morning because every store is closed.

I've been getting e-mails lately about how -- or how not -- politically correct the term "Merry Christmas" is. I'm so tired of being politically correct.

When you try your best to be polite and courteous, why should you have to keep defending your own opinions, beliefs, or life styles? Perhaps we should forget this whole "politically correct" notion and just practice some general tolerance.

I like to say "Merry Christmas" and I do it with no intention of offending anyone. Why should someone be offended? I'm not offended when I hear people wish me a good time celebrating one of ! their holidays. The greetings for any holiday are an invitation to enjoy and share in the celebration.

Maybe instead of making bland every holiday with "Happy Holidays" we can just say what holiday we are celebrating and let others do the same.

I think "correctness" comes from recognizing everyone's right to proclaim what they are celebrating by whatever name they normally use. Not by lessening all the holidays to some generic "one size fits all." The true beauty of living in a country based on individual freedom is being allowed to express ones-self and to enjoy others doing the same.

Personally, I think a lot of "politically correct" notions are the product of a small group of nit-pickers trying to label every one and every thing. Failing that, they put one big label on to cover it all.

A bit like putting a label of "medications" on all of your prescription drugs. It does tell you it's medicine and not fish bait, but other than that it leaves you guessing.

I'd hate to think that at some future date in America, no one will know what any particular holiday was.

It would, after all, be more politically correct to remove all holiday titles and simply number the holidays.

Allowing one every other month or so -- on a Monday or Friday of course, and by removing all descriptive names (labels) we could just get a day off of work without having to know why.

That would be practical, I suppose, and shouldn't offend anyone. Still the thought of taking picnic photos of "Holiday Three" just doesn't sound the same as Independence Day does it? I might be offended to change my birthday celebrations to simple descriptive numbers. "Here's a picture of Mom's 58!"

Instead of worrying about what we call a holiday offending someone, maybe we need to work more on recognizing and celebrating all the holidays.

Insisting on eliminating them because the words associated with those holidays might offend someone just seems silly to me.

If a friend or stranger wants to wish you "Merry Christmas" instead of saying "Happy Holidays" -- is that offensive? Maybe the reason we tolerate all this "political correctness" in the first place is embarrassment at not knowing someone's religious or ethnic bent in the first place.

Uncertain of how they feel about your holidays, and not knowing if they celebrate the same holidays you do, you might think saying nothing is safer.

How can we learn about each other if we don't recognize we have differences as well as things in common? Otherwise we might end up not greeting people at all.

Until the next time friends remember; if you don't know what holiday someone is celebrating, greet them with the one you celebrate. At least they'll know what kind of e-card to send you.