My twelve days experience

Two years ago, my family and I decided we should do something special for Christmas. I had read in the Ensign years ago about the Twelve Days of Christmas.  It was an idea to give presents to people in a way that they will not know. 

Christmas Traditions: LDS Style

One thing I have noticed over the years, is that we LDS have our own set of traditions which seem to follow, sometimes other faiths, sometimes they are our own special additives to the Holiday season.

So I am going to run down a few:

Midieval English carols

When one looks at Christmas much of our understanding of the hymns of Christmas come from the enlightenment period and onward when great musicians created some of the best known worship of the nativity.

However, if on examines some of the oldest English hymns one can get a feeling for the thoughts of people 1000 years ago and the songs they held as important to the Christmas season.  Keeping in mind that much of our understanding of these hymns has been coloured by the reformation and the English Civil War when Christmas was outlawed and much of the older traditional English worship was destroyed.

Chapter 6: Spinning wheels

The station’s mainframe rumbled internally, and all its portals shook violently. The epicenter was the Standback coffee shop.
Blinding white light, tinged with a hue of electric blue, flashed in through the coffee bar windows at Standback’s, and momentarily blinded the occupants! Standback.cfee gasped, and inverted into his usual slimy ball of green goo. Stavros.dctr spluttered on his drink, and keeled over. But Wilma, level-headed and smart, whipped out her Trusty Sonic Screwdriver ™, and hunkered down into a defensive poise. With her hand shading her eyes, she kept her senses sharp for anything around her.

Prorogued

After a week of political craziness I thought I would finish up on some observations.  But let me start with an article which gets to the heart of the political matter.  Especially for those unfamiliar of our system of government.

Chapter 5 In the Nick of time

Ten para-minutes after going to I-Drive, 10% of the ticket class warships of the RARS Empire dropped back to C-drive. The battleships had the appearance of broken mosaic tiles enthusiastically glued together. The underlying colour of the fleet was cream and ochre, but the tiles offered flashes of reds, blues, and greens, that belied their gaudy and stylistic origin.

Aboard the lead ship, the GE Problem, Captain Admirable Remedy rounded on his crew. He was very annoyed.
“What in rars is going on? That’s the fifth time this week the server engine has failed. Get me engineering on the comm!” he roared. He was a thin, boney man of late middle-age, with a fairly rattish face, and quick jerky movements fuelled by a ceaseless energy. He paced the captain’s deck impatiently.

Christmas Traditions: From SinterKlaas to Santa Claus the poem that started it all

No not the more famous one by Clement Clarke Moore, there is an earlier, shorter version by William Gilley.

“Old Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night.
O’er chimney tops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you…..
Each Christmas eve he joys to come
Where love and peace have made their home”
William B. Gilley, The Children’s Friend, 1821.

This poem, published 2 years prior to A Visit From St. Nicholas, would be ignored for the most part by many.  Even finding information on the poem is difficult.  This version  introduced many of the images of the modern Santa Claus, sleigh, flying over roofs, and reindeer . 2 years later a fat old Dutchman became Santa Claus, and the rest as they say is history.