Have a happy!

Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Yule, Kwanzaa, or Thursday, take your pick!

We had our usual Christmas Eve service yesterday at church.  Sweetie was in the choir loft and i got to sit next to Anna and Charles, both of whom i have taken care of in different rooms in the nursery hallway.

They had fun with the candles through the whole service, leaving wax shavings everywhere, as a 2- and 4-year-old are wont to do.  When it came the part of the service to light the candles, though, they noticed they weren't being allowed to light theirs.

Good thing i had my mini flashlight, and the one on my utility knife!  Good substitutes, i assure you, peace reigned and a good time was had by all.

Today, to Grandma and Grandpa's house we go, with Red-headed Alec in tow (he doesn't have enough time off work to go to Texas with the rest of the family).

Whatever you celebrate today, even if your idea of a great December 25 is to thank the universe for Isaac Newton, i hope you enjoy it thoroughly!



Today is:

A'phabet Day -- a/k/a No "L" Day!  yes, go ahead and groan

Carol Day -- internet generated, listed as different dates, but this is the last day this year you should have to listen to Christmas songs, so enjoy

Children's Day -- Cameroon; Chad; Central African Republic; Congo; Congo DR; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Uruguay

Christmas Day/Feast of the Nativity -- Christian/Orthodox Christian

Constitution Day -- Taiwan

Dia de la Familia -- Uruguay

Dies Natalis Invicti Solis -- Ancient Roman Calendar (birthday of the invincible sun god)

Ennead Feast in the Houses of Ra, Horus, and Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Family Day -- Angola; Mozambique; Uruguay

Icelandic Traditional Calendar Month Morsugur "Fat Sucker" begins -- Iceland (refering to the daily fare becoming scant in deep winter and body fat is used up)

Malkh-Festival -- Nakh peoples of Chechenya and Ingushetia (a sun god festival)

National Pumpkin Pie Day

Quaid-e-Azam's Day -- Pakistan (birth anniversary of "Great Leader," the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Day -- introduced by Montgomery Ward Department Store this day in 1939

St. Anastasia of Sirmium's Day (Patron of martyrs, weavers, and widows)


Anniversaries Today:

Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, 1926
Washington crosses the Delaware, 1776


Birthdays Today

Dido, 1971
Rickey Henderson, 1958
Shane MacGowan, 1957
Annie Lennox, 1954
Karl Rove, 1950
Ron Foos, 1949
Sissy Spacek, 1949
Barbara Mandrell, 1948
Larry Csonka, 1946
Jimmy Buffett, 1946
Gary Sandy, 1945
Hanna Schygulla, 1943
Carlos Castaneda, 1925
Rod Serling, 1924
Anwar Sadat, 1918
Quentin Crisp, 1908
Cab Calloway, 1907
Humphrey Bogart, 1899
Cal Farley, 1895
Robert Ripley, 1893
Dame Rebecca West, 1892
Conrad Hilton, 1887
Evangeline Cory Booth, 1865
Clara Barton, 1821
Isaac Newton, 1642
Traditional Birthday of Mithras
Traditional Birthday of Sol


Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Sword in the Stone(Disney animated film), 1963
"The Steve Allen Show"(TV), 1950
"Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts", 1931
"Why Marry?"(Play, first to win a Pulitzer for Drama), 1917 
"Symphony Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste ... en cinq parties"(Berlioz Symphony), 1830


Today in History:

The first Christmas, according to calendar maker Dionysus Exiguus, 1
The earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on the 25th, 337
The first definite date that Christmas was celebrated on the 25th, 352
Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome, 800
William I, Conqueror, crowned king of England, 1066
Boudouin I of Boulogne crowned king of Jerusalem, 1100
Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily, 1130
St Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene, in Greccio, Italy, 1223
The city of Natal, Brazil is founded., 1599
Gov William Bradford of Plymouth forbids game playing on Christmas, 1621
The Massachusetts General Court ordered a fine of five shillings for "observing any such day as Christmas", 1651
The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria, 1818
Louisiana & Arkansas are the first US states to observe Christmas as holiday, 1831
Despite bitter opposition, Pres Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in Southern rebellion (a/k/a the Civil War, or, tongue planted firmly in cheek, that recent unpleasantness between the States), 1868
The legendary/unofficial "Christmas Truce" takes place between the British & Germans, 1914
Emperor Taisho of Japan dies; his son, Prince Hirohito succeeds him as Emperor Showa, 1926
Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th reindeer, 1939
The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1, 1946
The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students, 1950
Richard Starkey gets his first drum set for Christmas, 1957
Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneouver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit, 1968
Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia, 1974
Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, 1977
The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web, 1990
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day), 1991
Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which would later successfully land on Saturn's moon Titan, 2004

The first snowfall in the last 128 years occurs in the U.S. city of Atlanta, Georgia; 500 flights are affected, 2010

The South Pole records its warmest temperature at -12.3 degrees Celsius at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, 2011