Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy!

The Murfreesboro area offers all sorts of festive events coming up this holiday season—get into the Christmas spirit at the local parades, outdoor skating rinks, at The Nutcracker (just a phenomenal work of music—one of my favorites!), the free Tennessee Valley Winds Christmas concert, the Bethlehem Marketplace, at area Christmas tree farms and poinsettia houses, or just driving around and viewing lights adorning many of the local houses; decorating a property with lights has become a fun art form for many homeowners!

The Explore Tennessee series that the Pulse has run over the past years has become a big part of the Mayo family’s lives, a fun and important piece of each month for us involving some fresh air, adventure and exercise. It has been beautiful, humbling, rejuvenating and energizing, yet challenging being able to explore these expansive pieces of parkland, many of them vast and spanning thousands of acres, yet each one only a tiny, tiny fraction of this huge and mysterious earth.

Shop local this holiday season, and always.

There are some quality businesses that support the Pulse that you will see advertised over the coming pages, operated by creative and smart people working hard to make their business vision a reality. Ain’t that America.

If you ever see a Pulse rack out there that doesn’t have current copies in it, let us know, and we will restock it. You can shoot a text to 615-796-6248 if you see an unfilled rack. We try and fill each one early in the month with enough copies to last until the next edition, but sometimes one sees more pickups than usual for one reason or another. We don’t want anyone missing out on their copy of the Pulse.

Thanks to everyone who does notice our news racks, who will notify me occasionally when they are empty, for being our eyes and ears out there. It takes a village.

If you have anything to communicate to me, please come out and say it. Spell it out.

I am told I sometimes may not be the best at picking up on non-verbal cues.

Merry Christmas!

May humankind cease its petty bickering and wars and negativity and all just get along.

All I want for Christmas is world peace . . . and real estate. And Legos, a bunch of sweet Lego sets. And gold and silver. And a manual transmission Infiniti G37x Sport sedan.

All Sarah wants is shoes; sing it with us: All I want for Christmas, is shoooooes . . . (shoooooes, baby).

But mainly, I all want is world peace . . . and a new football. And respect . . . and all kinds of cool technology that I don’t have to hook up myself, a fashionable wardrobe that fits perfectly, physical health and comfort and strong immunity, good lovin’ from my wife, a Jeep, inner peace, a grill for my teeth with diamonds, lots of leisure time and a personal assistant. And a yacht. That’s mainly it.

Peace on Earth and goodwill to men!