There’s more, much more to Christmas
Than candle-light and cheer;
It’s the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all the year;
It’s thoughtfulness and kindness,
It’s hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding
And for goodwill to men!
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
Santa Claus’s reindeer form an imaginary team of flying reindeer traditionally held to pull the sleigh of Santa Claus and help him deliver Christmas gifts.
They are:
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.
I’m one of them. Which one do you think I am?
The 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “The Night Before Christmas” or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas“) is largely credited for the contemporary Christmas lore that includes the eight flying reindeer and their names.
The relevant segment of the poem reads:
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
with a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name:
“Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen!
“On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Dunder and Blixem!
“To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
“Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
Starbucks unveiled its new holiday design – a red cup with the green Starbucks logo – and sparked significant controversy due to its lack of Christmas symbols like reindeer and snowflakes.
Starbucks defended the blank holiday design as welcoming of people’s different stories.
More specifically, she is the most amazing cat on the planet.
In July of 2011, she was discovered as the runt of a healthy feral litter in a tool shed in rural Indiana at only a few weeks old. She was taken in as a rescue when it was clear that she would require special care. Since then BUB has become one of the most famous cats on planet.
She is a published author, a talk show host, the star of an award winning documentary, and has helped raise over $200,000 for animals in need.
Shortly after turning one year old, BUB was diagnosed with an exceptionally rare bone condition called osteopetrosis.
For more info about Lil Bub click on the link below
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
Black Friday used to be a one-day shopping event for many retailers, but over time, with Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday coming into the mix, it’s become a big weekend-long shopping event.
With so much buzz around this shopping extravaganza, it’s not hard to buy into the circus of it all. You’ll make impulse purchases and fall into every retailers’ trap to get you to spend your small fortune in their stores. They’ll pull out all the stops to get you in their stores and then, well, I’m sure you know the rest.
Don’t be tempted by all the bold colors in the ads that draw you in and especially the low prices that get your attention. During this year’s biggest shopping event, be a smarter shopper by following some of these rules:
Each year, Americans are spending billions in a matter of days: Black Friday weekend. And while the discounts can be pretty great — how much money are shoppers ultimately saving at the end of the day?
Yesterday she noticed a post which I had shared related to this topic.
She was asking me what it meant.
At the same moment, she was watching the news.
She posted back to me the picture of her TV with these news and another picture showing the the raging, “former pastor” idiot who started all of this by posting his ranting video on his FB page.
I asked her how she and her fellow country men saw Americans.
She say they think Americans are funny and hilarious, among other things.
Clay Bennett (born January 20, 1958 in Clinton, South Carolina) is an American editorial cartoonist. His cartoons typically present liberal viewpoints. Currently drawing for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Bennett is the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.
Just when you think you have heard it all, along comes a story that takes the prize.
I’ve always thought that the actual and ever-increasing commercialization of Christmas is too much and too early.
The ads, the decorations, the conversations and disagreements about Christmas start in early autumn, even before Thanksgiving’s had a chance for glory.
The motto: “The War On Christmas“.
This year is no exception and all the hoopla has appeared over the lunatic actions and crazy rants of an “overzealous pastor” whose past actions have been quite questionable.
Here’s a gist of this story. I personally think I wouldn’t want this “pastor guy” representing me in any way.
‘War On Christmas’ Apparently Now Being Fought With Coffee Cups
The 2015 holiday season has barely begun and the first shots in the War On Christmas have already been fired in the form of Starbucks coffee cups:
Some people are angry about Starbucks’ new holiday cups. Really angry.
What is the issue, exactly?
In previous years, Starbucks’ iconic holiday cups, which the chain uses in lieu of white cups in November and December, featured wintry or Christmas-themed designs like snowflakes, ornaments and nature scenes. This year, the cups are more minimalist – a red ombre design that Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks’ vice president of design, said was meant to embrace “the simplicity and the quietness” of the holiday season.
This is a huge problem for some people, who feel that the plain red cups are oppressing Christians by insulting Christmas.
“This is a denial of historical reality and the great Christian heritage behind the American Dream that has so benefited Starbucks,” Andrea Williams of the U.K.-based organization Christian Concern told Breitbart. “This also denies the hope of Jesus Christ and His story so powerfully at this time of year.”
To clarify, it’s not like the previous cups were decked out in crosses and mangers. It’s unclear why a drawing of a winking snowman or a dog sledding, for instance, is more “Christian” than a plain red and green (you know, Christmas colors) cup.
But either way, angry Starbucks patrons have a solution.
Former pastor Joshua Feuerstein claimed in a viral Facebook video that he had “pranked” Starbucks by simply telling them his name was “Merry Christmas” — thus forcing the surely unimpressed barista to write the words “Merry Christmas” on the cup.
Feuerstein also noted that he brought a gun into the coffee shop, in spite of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’ request that patrons leave their firearms at home. Ho ho, good one!
In the video, Feuerstein encouraged people to similarly claim that their names are “Merry Christmas” and to use the hashtag #MerryChristmasStarbucks. Social media users have been expressing their support for the “prank.”
While this entire “War On Christmas” meme is obviously ridiculous, especially since if there is a “war” on Christmas it’s obvious that Christmas has one judging by the fact that the “holiday” season seems to start earlier and earlier every year, it is part of a larger phenomenon on the right that plays itself out on the political stage.
Did Starbucks Just Declare A ‘War On Christmas’ With Red Cups?
~Published on Nov 9, 2015~
Is Starbucks declaring a war on Christmas?
A guy on the internet named Joshua Feuerstein seems to think so. Conservatives coined the “War on Christmas” about a decade ago, claiming religious persecution when, for example, someone opts to use the all-inclusive phrase ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas.’
New Year 2015: Google wishes Happy New Year with an animated doodle
New Delhi
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2015, Google has posted an animated doodle on its homepage. The doodle has been created by guest artist Cindy Suen.
This doodle is in tune with Google’s tradition of posting doodles on New Year.
The last year’s New Year doodle was in continuation to the New year’s eve 2013 doodle. The animated doodle showed a party on with speakers blaring and the digits 2-0-1-3 grooving on the dance floor and the digit 4 that had been waiting for the new year to begin replaced the digit 3 to form “2014”.
~~GALLERY~~
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~~New Year 2015~~
Google Doodle Collection
~~Published on Dec 31, 2014~~
Here is the Google Doodle about the New Year 2015 on January 1st, 2015. Google celebrates the year 2015 with this Doodle. It is a worldwide Google Doodle about the New Year 2015.
Have fun celebrating this day and the upcoming year. Happy New Year!
I know Christmas day is over. The new year will begin tomorrow. The meaning of this song applies to any time of the year.
BELIEVE
Today is a special day … it’s the day when the year ends. We’ve had all kinds of experiences …. good or bad, happy or sad. Our world has gone through many changes in many ways.
It’s time to hope, to plan, to envision … better things!
Let’s hope for a year of good tidings … personal and worldwide!!
~SHE HAS GROWN SO BEAUTIFULLY~
Jacqueline Marie “Jackie” Evancho (born April 9, 2000) is an American classical crossover singer who gained wide recognition at an early age and, since 2009, has issued an EP and five albums, including a platinum and gold album and three Billboard 200 top 10 debuts.
Evancho is the ambassador for Mission: Humane, a U.S. Humane Society program that encourages children to help protect animals. A national cotillion organization listed her as one of the “ten best-mannered people of 2011”. From late 2012 to 2014, she toured the U.S., performing songs from her fourth full-length album, Songs from the Silver Screen, released in October 2012, which was Evancho’s third top-ten album debut. In 2013 she also headlined benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall and the LDS Conference Center.
She appeared in the 2013 Robert Redford film The Company You Keep, modeled for Guess Kids clothing, among others, and has appeared on behalf of such charities as One Drop Foundation. Evancho released her fifth full-length album, Awakening, in September 2014, which was her fifth consecutive No. 1 release on the Billboard Classical Albums chart.
Children, sleeping. Snow is softly falling. Dreams are calling, Like bells in the distance. We were dreamers, Not so long ago. But one by one, we All had to grow up.
When it seems the magic slipped away… We find it all again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying, Hear the melody that’s playing. There’s no time to waste, There so much to celebrate. Believe in what you feel inside, Give your dreams the wings to fly. You have everything you need, if you just believe.
Trains move quickly To their journey’s end. Destinations… Are where we begin again. Ships go sailing, Far across the sea. Trusting starlight, To get where they need to be.
When it seems that we have lost our way… We find ourselves again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying, Hear the melody that’s playing There’s no time to waste, There so much to celebrate. Believe in what you feel inside, And give your dreams the wings to fly. You have everything you need, if you just Believe.
If you just believe. If you just believe. If you just believe. If you just believe ….
Songwriters
BALLARD, GLEN / SILVESTRI, ALAN ANTHONY
~~Believe~~
~~Published on Dec 13, 2011~~
Music video by Jackie Evancho performing Believe. (c) 2011 Sony Music Entertainment
It Is What It Is 