Merry Chjristmas

[vlxerdon]

Good morning everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful day. Mery Christmas and have a Happy and safe new year.

[davefrombc]

Have a very Happy  and safe MERRY CHRISTMAS  everyone.

[jen]

Merry Christmas to all.  

[bigfatkahuna]

🎄🎄 Merry Christmas! 🎄🎄

[mikeexplorer]

Merry Christmas

 

[jen]

Merry Christmas and Get ready for the New Year!

[WeeBee]

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year as well !!

[shorty]

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and sorry I didn't post sooner. Happy New Year 

[jen]

Its still Christmas until Jan 11th!  I remember feeding the cattle after dark in the barn.  I would listen to them make lowing sounds as they ate in the darkness.  We could not open our gifts until the chores were done. Miss that being in Florida

[mikeexplorer]

19 hours ago, jen said:

Its still Christmas until Jan 11th!  I remember feeding the cattle after dark in the barn.  I would listen to them make lowing sounds as they ate in the darkness.  We could not open our gifts until the chores were done. Miss that being in Florida

Why January 11th? 

 

[jen]

I Octave of Christmas ends with the Solemnity of Mary on Jan 6 .  The official end is not until the following Sunday Jan 11th.

[shorty]

Ok thanks, that's new to me 

[shorty]

I'm Catholic and never knew about the Octave or Solemnity. I guess my parents decided I didn't need to know. Funny after all these years I hear about it here.

Thanks 

[davefrombc]

Copied this from an article from the Cathedral of St. Joseph  in  Vermont  website

  by Kathy Fisher

The Octave of Christmas is the eight days beginning with Christmas Day and ending on New Year’s Day, January 1. Feast days and solemnities mark the period:  the Nativity, December 25; St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr on December 26; St. John the Evangelist, apostle, author of the fourth Gospel, three letters, and the Book of Revelation, December 27; the Holy Innocents, December 28, the male child victims slaughtered by King Herod; the Holy Family, Sunday, December 29; St. Sylvester, December 31, and Mary, Mother of God, January 1. We recite the Gloria each day of the Octave. We then continue the Christmas season through Epiphany, January 5, and officially end with the Baptism of the Lord, January 12.

 

 

[jen]

To be honest I am not that pious.   Remember Satan can quote the Bible...Except when I think about dying then ..Well let's say I can  reflect on a lot of my issues... a lot!... LOL...As a kid we had to go to church.

BTW...Th Baptism Of the Lord to Irish is Women's Day.  I have some Irish friends.

[shorty]

My brother and I went to church every Sunday with dad when we were kids. Mom stayed home. I would ask Dad why Mom didn't come with us. He said she's a heathen. I didn't even know what that meant 

[jen]

That's Funny...I am sure your Mother was not a heathen...LOL

[shorty]

Eating lentils tomorrow with a Catholic couple. I believe it's part of the Christmas Octave. Not sure if black eyed peas are lentils 

[jen]

Interesting Lentils...My Italian cousin does them on New Years eve.   We did Hassenpfeffer (mature rabbit with spices /pepper) during Christmas.  My Jewish (German) friends do Figs...that's a Libido thing I think LOL.   I fixed pork and Cabbage for them on New Years day.  They loved that but were not supposed to eat pork.

guess.

[jen]

Interesting ...You feed your girl friend Figs on New Years?

[mikeexplorer]

23 hours ago, jen said:

I Octave of Christmas ends with the Solemnity of Mary on Jan 6 .  The official end is not until the following Sunday Jan 11th.

That is a new one to me

 

[jen]

Well Mike you know I have a favorite Christmas poem.  He was an American writer.  Born in St Louis...I Love St Louis.. .  I Had some serious parties in Corev Coeur  ( Fr. Broken Heart)  with a friend.  The name was fitting unfortunately.

The poem is somewhat dark for Christmas.  But many are lonely and sad  reflecting on the past at this time of Christmas. 

 But I digress,  The Journey of the Magi, by T.S Elliot

A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.’

And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

 

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

 

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

 

 

[jen]

Merry Christmas and THe best of the new year to you and Friends.

[jen]

Merry Christmas ...still watching for Santa to stuff my stocking.

[shorty]

I think it's past time for Santa to stuff stockings. Great expectations will be fulfilled I'm sure. Happy new year 

[jen]

Today is Epiphany Sunday.  I hope the T.S. Eliot version was food for thought...   I think ATV guys would have viewed the journey similarly...you know the "ways deep and the weather sharp..".  "

"the camel men cursing and grumbling

and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,"

 Very realistic point of view.

[jen]

#cdays left in the Christmas season.  What was the best thing you got?

[shorty]

A new chainsaw.. really only wanted a new chain and bar for the old one. I rebuilt the carb on the old one so I can bring it into the woods in case the new one gets stuck in a tree

[jen]

3 days til Christmas season is  over ....A new Chain saw.   I got bourbon by the glass LOL

[WeeBee]

15 hours ago, jen said:

#cdays left in the Christmas season.  What was the best thing you got?

A new Maglite w/ LEDs! Visits w/ Family & Friends!