Dog Days of Christmas (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Fruitcakes (Poetry Monday)

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

We were once again up to our elbows in dogs for Christmas.

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 Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

source

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog break and is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know, or leave a poem in the comments.

This week the theme is Fruitcake.                

         

Some find fruitcake delightful

And full of toothsome charms,

While others cannot stand them

And if served will take up arms.

There's another kind of fruitcake,

One we'd like to outlaw,

It's the person who acts so nutty,

Just like my Brother-in-Law!

If you really like eating fruitcake,

May you have plenty to enjoy,

And may any fruitcake relatives

Only each other annoy.

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Today is:

Anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's Death -- Sindh, Pakistan

Calli (House) Day -- Aztec Calendar (a good day for all things hearth and home and family. a bad day to participate in public life; date approximate, but soon after the solstice)

Constitution Day -- Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)

Festival of Nehebkau -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (Beginning of Eternity, celebrating the snake god and his role of binding the sun to the earth at the beginning of time; date approximate)

Kwanzaa, Day 2, Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)

Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day -- internet generated, with Christmas over, you need to do winter decorations

Modern Medicine Day -- birth anniversary of Louis Pasteur

National Fruitcake Day -- unless, of course, you are like me and have spent your last several days with fruitcake relatives, at which point you get a day off from fruitcakes! ;D 

St. Fabiola's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, divorced people, victims of abuse, victims of adultery, widows)

St. John the Divine's Day (Patron of art dealers, authors, bookbinders, booksellers, burn victims, compositors, editors, engravers, friendships, lithographers, painters, papermakers, printers, publishers, tanners, theologians, typesetters, writers; Asia Minor; Boise, Idaho, Borgo Santo Sepolcro, Italy; Cleveland, OH; Eger, Hungary; Milwaukee, WI; Morra, Netherlands; Saint-Jean – Longueuil, Québec; Sansepoicro, Italy; Sundern, Germany; Taos, NM; Umbria, Italy; Wroclaw, Poland; against burns, poisoning)

St. Stephen's Day -- Eastern Orthodox, a public holiday in Romania

Third Day of Christmas

Unfairies' Gathering -- Fairy Calendar

Visit the Zoo Day -- while the children are out of school for the holidays

Watch the Children Day -- internet generated, a day to take a page from the book of the young and remember how to play like a child

Birthdays Today:

Heather O'Rourke, 1975

Masi Oka, 1974

Bill Goldberg, 1966

Tovah Feldshuh, 1952

Gerard Depardieu, 1948

Cokie Roberts, 1943

John Amos, 1939

Oscar Levant, 1906

Marlene Dietrich, 1901

Sydney Greenstreet, 1879

Louis Pasteur, 1822

George Cayley, 1773

Johannes Kepler, 1571

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Knots Landing"(TV), 1979

"Howdy Doody"(TV), 1947 (first successful children's television show)

"Radio Roxyettes"(Now the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes), 1932

"Peter Pan"(Play), 1904

Today in History:

The Hagia Sofia of Constantinople is completed, 537

The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World, 1512

The first public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England, 1825

Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, 1831

Worst English avalanche kills 8 of 15 buried in Lewes Sussex, 1836

Ether is first used in childbirth in US, in Jefferson, Ga., 1845

The world's first cat show is held at the Crystal Palace, London, 1871

Carrie Nation's first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel, Wichita, Kansas, 1900

Unsuccessful attempt on prince-regent Hirohito of Japan, 1923

Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky is expelled, 1927

Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City, 1932

The Shah of Persia declares Persia is now Iran, 1934

The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations, 1945

Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon, 1968

The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States, 2001

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet, 2004

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, 2007

Toyota Motor Corporation agrees to pay $1 billion to settle over a dozen lawsuits related to sudden acceleration, 2012