The Price (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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What's the price of admission?

Will it cost you mere money, like admission to the local zoo or a theme park?

Will it cost you years of study, like an advanced degree, or years of training so you become an expert in your field?

Will it cost you your moral sense, the compromise of your ethics, sliding down the slippery slope to seek power or money or fame?

There's a price of admission on everything, including the stable with its manger, it costs your pride, your self-righteousness, your pet sins and inflated ego.

Jesus answered, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick; I've come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Admission.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

The first one is a "fence" made of Christmas lights, the daytime picture isn't much to look at, but you can see it at night.

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

(a freeform poem)

I really couldn't help it,

it started years ago,

first it was one string of bulbs,

and then it got away,

now I can't stop,

it's an addiction,

Help!

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(to be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Dash on through our town

as the days grow short,

you'll see all the lights,

it's become a local sport.

Making our streets glow

a little more each year,

we deck the halls and then rejoice

and give a Christmas cheer!

Oh, all the lights, all the lights,

glowing in the dark,

putting up and taking down's 

no picnic in the park!

But the people love it so

and kids all shout with glee,

so we put up all the lights

for everyone to see!

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for leftovers from Christmas and not needing to cook!

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photo

It's Boxing Day, a day on which boxes of goodies are given to the less fortunate or public servants.

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Today is:

Awful Tie Day -- internet generated, go to the office and compare who got the worst tie as a gift

Blessing of the Wine -- Greiveldange, Luxembourg (winemakers parade to the church to have a barrel of wine blessed)

Coffee Percolator Day -- patented by James Mason on this day in 1865

Day of Goodwill -- Namibia; South Africa

Day of Our Theotokos /  Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God -- Byzantine/Eastern Orthodox Christian

Family Day -- Namibia; Vanuatu

First Day of the Stanley Races -- Falkland Islands

Hanukkah -- Judaism (began sundown yesterday; through sundown Jan. 2)

Independence and Unity Day -- Slovenia(1990)

J'Ouvert -- Saint Kitts and Nevis (carnival-style street party for Boxing Day)

Junkanoo (Junkanoo Jonkanoo, Jankunu, John Canoe or Johnkankus) -- Caribbean Islands, also on New Years Day (A special music and dance, mime and symbol that is an early traditional dance form of African descent.)

Kwanzaa, Day 1, Umoja (Unity)

Mauro Hamza Day -- Houston, TX, US (United States Fencing Association Foil Director)

Mummer's Day -- Padstow, Cornwall

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank-you Note Day

National Whiner's Day™ -- a day to encourage people to be happy with what they have; the previous year's worst whiners are announced (you don't want to be one!)   

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (day South Australia was established as a Province in 1836 by royal Proclamation)

Recyclable Packaging Day -- started by someone who wants to remind us to gather up the reusable bags, boxes, etc., left from the holiday, and recycle the rest

Second Day of Christmas

Sports Days -- Falkland Islands (through the 28th, with the Boxing Day race at Stanley being the most famous part of the celebration)

St. James the Just's Day -- Orthodox Christian

St. Stephen's Day (Patron of casket makers, deacons, horses, masons, stone masons; Patron of over 80 cities throughout Italy; Kessel, Germany; Metz, France; Owensboro, KY; Toulouse, France; against headaches)

     Public Holiday in Alsace, France; Andorra; Austria; Catalonia; Croatia; Czech Republic; Germany; Holy See; Hong Kong; Ireland; Italy; Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; Poland; San Marino; Slovakia; Spain (regional); Switzerland (regional)

     Celebrated as Father's Day -- Bulgaria

     Day of the Wren -- Ireland; Isle of Mann (costumed mayhem)

Tehuantepec Festivities -- Oaxaca, Mexico

Thanksgiving Day -- Solomon Islands

Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra) - Zoroastrian

Anniversary Today:

Rodney Dangerfield weds Joan Child, 1993

Establishment of Shenandoah National Park, VA, US, 1935

Birthdays Today:

Chris Daughtry, 1979

Jared Leto, 1971

Lars Ulrich, 1963

David Sedaris, 1956

Ozzie Smith, 1954

Carlton Fisk, 1947

John Walsh, 1945

Phil Spector, 1940

Alan King, 1927

Steve Allen, 1921

Richard Widmark, 1914

Mao Tse-tung, 1893

Henry Miller, 1891

Charles Babbage, 1791

Laurent Clerc, 1785

Juan Lovera, 1778

Thomas Nelson, 1738

Thomas Gray, 1716

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Do re mi"(Musical), 1960

"The Glass Menagerie"(Play), 1944

"Of Thee I Sing"(Musical), 1931

Judy Garland, as Baby Frances, makes her stage debut at age 2 1/2, singing Jingle Bells on the vaudeville stage, 1924

"Tragic Overture"(Brahms' Op. 81), 1880

Today in History:

Columbus founds the first Spanish settlement in the New World by leaving behind 36 men in what is now Haiti, 1492

The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins, 1792

A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable, 1811

The Erie Canal opens, 1825

Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years, 1871

King Mwanga of Uganda signs a contract with the East Africa Company, 1890

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium, 1898

FM radio is patented, 1933

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer, 1982

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR, 1991

A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 250,000 people, 2004

Brazil overtakes the United Kingdom as the world's sixth largest economy, 2011

China opens the world’s longest high-speed rail route, from Beijing to Guangzhou, 2012

After a journey of 54 days, American Colin O'Brady is the first person to cross Antarctica solo and unassisted, 2018
An annular solar eclipse is visible from South and Southeast Asia, 2019

The Japanese High Court rules TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, is solely responsible to compensate evacuees, and absolving the Japanese Government of all liability, 2023