Podcasts about christmas don

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!!! Are you ready to jingle your bells? Are you ready to roast your chestnuts? Are you ready to twist your sister??? We're ranking the tracks on an album that no-one asked for, but Twisted Sister delivered anyway! That's right, it's A Twisted Christmas and we're all over it, under it, and around it. But how will our two intrepid podcasters feel about an album full of Christmas songs by a hard rock/glam metal outfit? Will it get the thumbs up, or will Kev and Corey think that "This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, 'What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn't he have rested on that day too?"The only way to find out is to come ye to Bethlehem!Songs covered in this episode: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "White Christmas", "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "Silver Bells", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "Deck the Halls", "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)", "Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)"Don't forget to follow us on social media and leave us a rating/review if you're enjoying the show!Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UltimateCatalogueClashBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ucatalogueclash.bsky.socialDiscord: https://discord.gg/76F8G8FEX8Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ultimatecatalogueclash Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jamie Cullum – Christmas Don’t Let Me Down – Single Version – 3:20 Caveboy – Jolly Old Saint Nicholas – 2:11 David Tobin; Jeff Meegan; Joanna Forbes L’Estrange; Sara Brimer Davey; Jo Goldsmith Eteson – Hurry Santa – 2:33 Dave Barnes – You to Me – 4:27 Andrew Morgan Smith and the Lifetimers – O […]

Send us a textWelcome to Guess the Year! This is an interactive, competitive podcast series where you will be able to play along and compete against your fellow listeners. Here is how the scoring works:10 points: Get the year dead on!7 points: 1-2 years off4 points: 3-5 years off1 point: 6-10 years offGuesses can be emailed to drandrewmay@gmail.com or texted using the link at the top of the show notes (please leave your name).I will read your scores out before the next episode, along with the scores of your fellow listeners! Please email your guesses to Andrew no later than 12pm EST on the day the next episode posts if you want them read out on the episode (e.g., if an episode releases on Monday, then I need your guesses by 12pm EST on Wednesday; if an episode releases on Friday, then I need your guesses by 12 pm EST on Monday). Note: If you don't get your scores in on time, they will still be added to the overall scores I am keeping. So they will count for the final scores - in other words, you can catch up if you get behind, you just won't have your scores read out on the released episode. All I need is your guesses (e.g., Song 1 - 19xx, Song 2 - 20xx, Song 3 - 19xx, etc.). Please be honest with your guesses! Best of luck!!The answers to today's ten songs can be found below. If you are playing along, don't scroll down until you have made your guesses. .....Have you made your guesses yet? If so, you can scroll down and look at the answers......Okay, answers coming. Don't peek if you haven't made your guesses yet!.....Intro song: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee (1958)Song 1: Silent Night by The Temptations (1980)Song 2: Joy to the World / Sweet Little Baby Boy by Selah (2022)Song 3: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Michael Buble (2011)Song 4: This Christmas by The Philly Specials (2022)Song 5: What Child is This? by Johnny Mathis (1958)Song 6: Christmas Don't Be Late by Kacey Musgraves (2016)Song 7: Baby, It's Cold Outside by Kelly Clarkson (2013)Song 8: Angels We Have Heard on High by Russ Taff (1992)Song 9: Run Run Rudolph by Luke Bryan (2008)Song 10: Silent Night by Harry Connick, Jr. (2003)

Full show - Wednesday | Scrooged | News or Nope - December bad decisions and Megan Fox and MGK | Have these professions fallen off? | OPP - Cell phone for Christmas | Don't tilt your head back!!! | Are you guilty of hoarding these things? | Stupid stories @theslackershow @thackiswack @radioerin

Great weekend with family! Sister-in-law was here and a lovely cousin from Lakeland drove over so, we had thanksgiving early! Thankful ALWAYS for family! The Music Authority Podcast...listen, like, comment, download, share, repeat…heard daily on Podchaser, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Listen Notes, Mixcloud, Player FM, Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, Pocket Cast, APPLE iTunes, and direct for the source distribution site: *Podcast - https://themusicauthority.transistor.fm/  AND NOW there is a website! TheMusicAuthority.comThe Music Authority Podcast! Special Recorded Network Shows, too! Different than my daily show! Seeing that I'm gone from FB now…Follow me on “X” Jim Prell@TMusicAuthority*Radio Candy Radio Monday Wednesday, & Friday 7PM ET, 4PM PT*Rockin' The KOR Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM UK time, 2PM ET, 11AM PT  www.koradio.rocks*Pop Radio UK Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 6PM UK, 1PM ET, 10AM PT! *The Sole Of Indie https://soleofindie.rocks/ Monday Through Friday 6-7PM EST!*AltPhillie.Rocks Sunday, Thursday, & Saturday At 11:00AM ET!November 25, 2024, Monday, set two…@Emerald Sunday - I Wish the World Would Sing@Dream Aria - On This Christmas Eve@Ethan Askey & The Elevators - Clarksdale@Fragile Creatures - Chasing Hearts@Gary Kaluza - Shut Up Mariah@ Gary Kaluza & The Figgy Puddings – Xmas Business@The Toms – Tomplicated [Tomplicated] (@Futureman Records)@Greg Amici - Father Christmas@Griff And Michele - Christmas Smile@Gulf Stream Riders – Hello@James Clark Institute - Orange Christmas@The Weeklings - Don't Know, Don't Care [In Their Own Write] (@Jem Records)@Joe Normal - Christmas In A Blue-Collar Town [Don't Go, Christmas – EP]@Joe Normal - Christmas Peace [Don't Go, Christmas – EP]@Joe Normal - Don't Go, Christmas [Don't Go, Christmas – EP]@Kitty May - Something Missing@John Howard - Pour The Cup (For Sleep To Claim You) [Dreaming I Am Waking]@Ken Valdez - Bailar Y Amar@Lisa Nemzo – Merry Christmas Baby

The family are having a Boxing Day lunch upstairs after the pub has closed Jordan refuses a glass of champagne, then announces that she's pregnant Judy has returned from Belfast. She's sorry for ruining Bob's Christmas Don't be silly, says Bob. He's just relieved that her mother is out of danger Neil asks Alyson how she likes the new laptop he bought her for Christmas It's great she says, subdued. Neil teases her. Did you expect something romantic? Laura and Dan call round to tell Charlotte and Raymond the good news The Council's going to repair the potholes on the ring road – just got an email Vicky brings Carmella and Harry a late Xmas gift. She celebrated with Darren in MK Darren's staying in MK – and thanks to the two of them, she's staying in Huntsford Adam has taken Chantelle out for a special dinner to say thank you for her friendship She has stood by him during the most difficult time of his life. He's very grateful

In all the franticness of Christmas Don't forget Santa Baby! My best advice and some fun ideas and links. Don't miss this one! Wink Wink!   Episode Links: Dating Diva: https://www.thedatingdivas.com/ SoFestive.com https://sofestive.com/2013/12/13/easy-12-days-christmas-idea/ Get More Mentoring from Mona

This week on The Gospel Jubilee Chip and Denny begin their annual series of Christmas programming. Tune in and you'll be blessed by some of the most wonderful Christmas music you'll ever hear. Here are all of the ways you can listen to the Gospel Jubilee On your Echo device say, Alexa, play the Gospel Jubilee on Apple podcast. For a direct download go to: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/57865866/download.mp3 Ocean Waves Radio ... every Wednesday at 5:00 PM Eastern time., www.OceanWavesRadio.com Thursday afternoons at 4:00 PM and Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM EST on Southern Branch Bluegrass Radio, www.sbbradio.org Saturday evenings at 7:00 and Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 CST on Radio For Life, www.RadioForLife.org Legend Oldies Radio. Our broadcast will be aired every Sunday morning at 9:00 AM CDT. https://www.legendoldies.com Playlist: Artists |Song Title | Album 01. Tribute Quartet - It's the most wonderful time of the year - "The Thought Of Christmas" 02. The Kingdom Heirs - Winter Wonderland - "It's Christmas" 03. The Taylors - Marshmallow world - "It's Christmas" 04. Jeff & Sheri Easter - Miles into smiles - "Christmas is" 05. The Crist Family - I love those jingle bells - "Timeless - A Christmas Collection" 06. Triumphant Quartet - We need a little Christmas - "We Need A Little Christmas" 07. Ernie Haase & Signature Sound - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - "A Jazzy Little Christmas" 08. John Darin Rowsey - Christmas and family - "Season For Believing" 09. Canton Junction - Christmas can't be very far away - "A Canton Christmas" 10. Carroll Roberson - Christmas memories - "Christmas Memories" 11. Master's Voice - I'll be home for Christmas - "The Season To Sing" 12. The Mark Trammell Quartet & The Whisnants - The Christmas song - "Home For Christmas" 13. Chronicle - Merry Christmas momma - "Christmas Down In Louisiana" 14. Ivan Parker - there's no place like home for the holidays - "Christmas Dreaming" 15. Legacy Five - Grandma's house for Christmas - "A Little Christmas" 16. The Down East Boys - Children go where I send thee - "Comfort & Joy EP" 17. Three Bridges - White Christmas - "Christmas Must Be Tonight" 18. Mark Bishop - Thanks for the mail - "You're Happy When You're Laughing" 19. The Troy Burns Family - Going home for Christmas - "Season For Believing" 20. . The Singing Contractors - The chipmunk song - ( Christmas Don't be late) - "Building A Christmas To Remember" 21. The Perrys - Holly jolly Christmas - "A Very Perry Christmas" 22. The Browns - Deck the halls (Consider yourself) - "Christmas Now" 23. The Collingsworth Family - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - "A True Family Christmas" 24. Anthem Edition - Here comes Christmas - "Here Comes Christmas" 25. High Road - Let us not forget - "Wonder EP" 26. The 3 Heath Brothers - Feliz Navidad (Come On, It's Christmas) - "Not So Silent Night" 27. The Lesters - Sing a happy song at Christmas - "Merry Christmas" 28. The Petersens - Christmas time's a comin' - '''Christmas With The Petersens" Outro – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Gordon Mote – The Holly and the Ivy

Our natural tendency at Christmas isn't to slow down, but to HURRY. Pull out the ornaments. Hang the stockings. Bake the cookies. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Is it possible to slow down enough to enjoy Christmas? Can we eliminate enough…… Read More Christmas // Don’t Hurry Christmas The post Christmas // Don’t Hurry Christmas appeared first on Refuge.Church.

Our natural tendency at Christmas isn't to slow down, but to HURRY. Pull out the ornaments. Hang the stockings. Bake the cookies. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Is it possible to slow down enough to enjoy Christmas? Can we eliminate enough… Read More Christmas // Don’t Hurry Christmas The post Christmas // Don’t Hurry Christmas appeared first on Refuge.Church.

On the 7th Day of Crushmas, the Music Crush Monday Podcast gives to you Christmas Don't Be Late by SerynSupport us on Patreon! Music Crush Monday Links:Website EmailPatreonFacebookInstagramTwitter

The Doctor Is In!! It's Spin-ter Wonderland season, and we're kicking off the holidays with Connor's pick: Dr. Demento's Greatest Christmas Novelty CD Of All Time! Brace yourself. This festive record is packed with a wide array of comedic tunes, from staples that have transcended novelty like Christmas Don't Be Late, Hippopotamus For Christmas, and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer to lesser-known deep cuts. We'll talk about the Disc Jockey himself and learn about monkey muggings, dog mayors, and the Weird Al movie! It's an album unlike any we've encountered before (and hopefully unlike any we'll encounter again) so be sure to tune in and "stay demented!" Keep Spinning at www.SpinItPod.com!Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freshly returned from a successful tour with the Goo Goo Dolls in support of their new album “Chaos in Bloom,” Robby Takac reminisces with Jeff Miers about the holiday music he loved in his youth, waxes rhapsodic about newer additions to the canon of holiday music, and even mentions a seasonal movie near and dear to his heart. Songs performed: "Christmas Time is Here," Harry Graser."River," Cami Clune accompanied by Rod Bonner."Happy Xmas (War is Over)," Grabbitz accompanied by Rod Bonner."Christmas Don't be Late," Robby Takac accompanied by Kevin Urso."O Holy Night," Richie English.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out Hannah's album, Christmas Don't Be Late:https://open.spotify.com/album/6VMzdyF7kRpuRxEj5aTnTc?si=YQxy2TGLRUesDkk-g5f2ZACheck out Hannah's website: https://www.hannahthomasmusic.ca/ Get full access to Musically Speaking Podcast with Chuong Nguyen at musicallyspeaking.substack.com/subscribe

Christmas music seems to be unstoppable with new songs and albums coming out every year, so Bill and Jennifer have a lot to talk about from traditional, classic tunes, whether they're overplayed and fall out of fashion; to innovative covers; to novelty and funny songs, new and old; to caroling and kids' TV shows; to artists who unexpectedly turn in an awesome song; and those we'd rather forget, especially if they included their kids on the recording. Whether Christmas is a happy or sad time for you, we've got recommendations. With co-host Bill Aho.Thoughts? Comments? Potshots? Contact the show at:https://www.discreetguide.com/podcast-books-shows-tunes-mad-acts/Follow or like us on podomatic.com (it raises our visibility :)https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/books-shows-tunes-mad-actsSupport us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/discreetguideFollow the host on Twitter:@DiscreetGuideThe host on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferkcrittenden/Music we discuss:Bestselling: Elvis, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Kenny G, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, PentatonixNew: Norah JonesFunny: Bummed Out Christmas (Christmas in Jail), Masked ChristmasNovelty: Snoopy's Christmas, All I Want for Christmas, Nuttin for Christmas (Barry Gordon), Jingle Bells by the Singing Dogs, Christmas Don't Be Late by the Chipmunks, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, Rudolph the Redneck Reindeer (Joe Diffie), 12 Days of Christmas (McKenzie Bros), Dominick the Donkey, Santa & the SatelliteCompilations: Maybe this Christmas, A Very Special Christmas, Celtic Christmas, Billboard ChristmasMisc: John Prine: Christmas in Hawaii, Tom Petty: Christmas All Over Again; Natalie Merchant: Children Go Where I Send Thee; Sheryl Crow: Blue Christmas; Asleep at the Wheel: Swingin' Drummer Boy; Dolly Parton: Hard Candy Christmas; Jack Johnson: Rudolph, Mellencamp: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Lisa Loeb: Jingle Bells; Rilo Kiley: Xmas CakeControversial: Baby It's Cold Outside, I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa ClausClassics: Chuck Berry: Merry Christmas, Baby, The Christmas Song, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Let It SnowNew:  Kelly Clarkson: Christmas isn't Cancelled, Just You;  Carly Rae Jepsin: It's Not Christmas Til Somebody CriesTV Specials: Peanuts Christmas, Rudolph, The Grinch, Rankin/BassAlbums: Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Ann Womack's A Season for Romance, Jazz: Fourplay's Snowbound, Boney James, Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong; Shawn Colvin's Holiday Songs & Lullabies, Chris IsaakVideos: Carla Williams & Billy Dean: Merry Xmas Darling; Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello: The Christmas Song' Elton John and Ed Sheeran: Merry Christmas; Meghan Trainor w/ Earth Wind & Fire: HolidaysNew:  Amanda Shire's I Want You Gone for Christmas; Leona Lewis: One More Sleep; Steve Wariner: Feels Like Christmas TimeRamsesThePigeon: Where Is the Comma in "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" Supposed to Go?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxfxy-3dGz0

Voted on by our Patreon, we look at the what, how, and for-gods-sake-why of some of those most hated holiday songs! 02:40 Banned songs 08:09 Wonderful Christmastime 10:45 Chipmunks Song 16:36 Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth) Like what you hear?  Become a patron of the arts for as little as $2 a month!   Or buy the book or some merch.  Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesliyan.   Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Links to all the research resources are on the website. In the early 80's, drought caused a famine that crippled the nation of Ethiopia.  It was a bad scene.  Half of the mortality rate is said to be attributable to “human rights violations.”  People around the world were moved, like Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof, who along with Midge Ure, wrote a fundraiser song.  Who could they get to sing it?  How about “everybody”?  The likes of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Boy George, Bono, and Sting joined forces as Band Aid to record the fast-selling single in UK history, asking us the question “Do They Know It's Christmas?”  My name's… Some songs rub us the wrong way because they're sung by shrieking children on now-oudated equipment was was not kind to female and higher-pitched voices, songs like I'm Getting Nuthin for Christmas and All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth, standards which I think think would have died away if we weren't all made to sing them in elementary school.  Some are painfully goofy, like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, but you almost have to give them a pass since it seems they accomplished what they set out to do.  Some songs make us their enemy by borrowing into our brains and setting up shop for hours or days on end, the dreaded holiday earworm, like Jingle Bell Rock and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.  The mere mention of the title is enough to activate them like a sleeper cell of obnoxious holiday cheer.   Banned You might be able to forbid people in your own home from playing songs that irritate you –and I stress “might”-- but if you can find yourself with a bit of authority and a big enough humbug up your butt, you can try to make it so nobody has to hear the song either.  For instance, the 1952 classic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” sung by 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd from Mississippi.  Did you realize the song was about the little boy not realizing that his Dad was dressed as Santa?  It had to be pointed out to me, and embarrassingly recently.  People were *scandalized by the musical marriage of sex and Christmas, with one churchgoer stating “mockery of decent family life as well as Christ's birthday.”  Many pearls were clutched.  They'd probably clutch them pearls twice as hard if I'd been there to tell them Jesus wasn't born on 12/25, but that's another show.  Boston's Catholic Archdiocese denounced it and the young Boyd had to meet with church leaders to explain that Mommy and Santa were properly, sanctily married.  A West Virginia broadcasting company prohibited its radio stations from playing this “insult to Santa Claus.”  The same thing happened to one of my husband's favorite songs, Lou Monte's “Dominick the Donkey,” but the people of WV went to bat for the little donkey who could take the Italian hills that were too much for the reindeer.  The public protested the ban so forcefully that it was repealed after less than two weeks; and this was in 1960, when 20% of homes in the US still didn't have a telephone.   For every time the hubs plays Dominick the Donkey, I play the Pogue's Fairytale of New York at least twice.  A lot of folks don't like, and I respect our difference of opinions, and think it's the farthest thing from a cheery Xmas song, and I agree with y'all there.  The 1987 duet with singer Kirsty MacColl, quickly became a UK holiday classic, famous then infamous in turn.  It tells the story of a toxic couple who seem to love each deep down, but should probably not be allowed within 200m of each other.  There's talk of drug use and insults, including a certain homophobic slur to rhyme with the word “maggot.”  In December 2019, BBC radio DJ Alex Dyke said he was cutting the song from his program.  The BBC had previously censored the song in 2007 with an unconvincing word-swap, but this brought more backlash than the original version had.  The BBC reversed course for a few years, then put the censored version back up.  What do you think?  soc med   Some songs we consider absolute standards, impeccable and indispensable, made people in their day as prickly as holl and less than jolly.  The BBC worried that “I'll Be Home for Christmas” could damage British morale during World War II, so no air-play for you!  In an amazingly blunt statement that would definitely trend on Twitter today:  “We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country.”   One of the most frequently cover and burlesqued-to songs, Santa Baby, wouldn't have become the classic it did if it had been sung by anyone other than the utterly incomparable Eartha Kitt.  Who doesn't love a Christmas song dripping in sexuality, sung by a loudly self-confident mixed race woman?  In 1953, a lot of people.   Radio stations refused to play it and political officials gnashed their teeth after Kitt performed Santa Baby at a dinner for the king and queen of Greece that November.  That was an unusual sentence and I'm stalling for time to let you process it.  However, Billboard magazine reported “Neither the King nor his Queen were one whit disturbed by the chantress's performance, nor by the song.”  Kitt was quoted as saying it was ‘inconceivable that anyone would question the ingenious poetry of the song.'”  I don't know about poetry, but I do know I don't want to hear any version other than hers.   Chipmunks My hatred for this next song cannot be overstated.  I almost hired an editor just for this section. It's shrill, it's pointless, and it's been playing for 63 freaking years.  It's the goddamn Chipmunks' song aka Christmas Don't Be Late.  I'm mad already.  Named after the president, chief engineer, and founder of Liberty Records, the furry little characters are the members of a “band”, called Alvin And The Chipmunks, while a “man” named David Seville functions as their human manager, catapulting them to super stardom.  The Chipmunks, three singing cartoon rodents in Victorian nightdresses apparently, or maybe ill-fitted sweater dresses, were the brainchild of a songwriter named Ross Bagdasarian, though he was better known by the pseudonym of David Seville, the name that would be immortalized as The Chipmunk's fictitious manager.  Bagdasarian was the son of Armenian immigrants to California, who served in the Army Air Force in WWII, which is how he came to find himself stationed in Seville, Spain.  He did a bit of acting, landing minor roles in Rear Window and Stalag 17.  Songwriting played out considerably better.  In 1951, he used the melody of an Armenian folk song to write Rosemary Clooney's hit, Come On-a My House. [sfx clip]    Bagdasarian-cum-Seville began toying around with voice distortion effects, speeding up and slowing down his voice to achieve the cute high pitched sound of the little animal's voices.  Consumer tape decks at the time had changeable speeds, but usually only in simple binary multiples, doubling or halving the speed, creating sounds an octave apart. Changing speeds of voices in these limited multiples creates extremely high or low pitches that sound too extreme for most purposes.  Disney used half-speed recording for his Chip ‘n Dale cartoon characters, making the extremely fast dialogue difficult to understand. As a result, dialog recorded at that speed had to consist of very short phrases.  Seville's chief innovation was to use tape machines that could vary speeds in between these extremes, creating more understandable and thus emotionally accessible voices that worked well for both singing and spoken dialogue.   The Chipmunk Song made its debut on Christmas 1958 and immediately became a smash hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart.  It would be the “band's” first and only #1 song, as well as Seville's second and final, No. 1 single.  The first was the song Witch Doctor, wanna hear it here it goes [sfx clip]  I guess when you have a hammer…    A write-up in Life magazine in 1959, noted that Bagdasarian/Seville was the first case in the "annals of popular music that one man has served as writer, composer, publisher, conductor and multiple vocalist of a hit record, thereby directing all possible revenues from the song back into his pocket."  That'd be impressive enough even if you didn't know that Seville couldn't read or write music, nor play any instruments, but now you do know that, so you should be quite impressed.   The Chipmunk Song earned them three Grammy Awards at the very first Grammy's the following May.  I'm going to say that again, because I don't think you heard me.  The Chipmunks song won three Grammy's.  In fairness, one is for best children's song.  A few years later, The Chipmunks landed their own television show as cartoon characters, but it did not command the same success their music career.  After Bagdasarian passed away unexpectedly in 1972, his son and daughter-in-law took over the voices of The Chipmunks, but it would take nearly ten years for The Chipmunks made it back to TV, with their 1981 Christmas special, the ingeniously named “A Chipmunk Christmas.”     Like a holiday Jason Vorhees, "The Chipmunk Song" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007 with the CGI Alvin and Chipmunks movie.  As of December 25, 2011, Nielsen SoundScan estimated total sales of the digital track at 867,000 downloads, making it third on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles.  #3 was Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who I've had the mixed blessing to see live – the performance was great but the stage light swept over the audience constantly; it was like having a camera flash go off in your face several times a minute.  #1 is, to the surprise of no one, Mariah Carey's 1994 "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and that's all the more attention she's getting from me.  If you ever want a real smdh moment, Google Mariah Carey's requirements to appear on camera for interviews.  The word “diva” doesn't begin to describe it.  Wonderful Now this one depends on the day.  Some days, it's so bad it's good and some days, and for some people all days, it's the regular kind of bad.  [sfx clip] Say what you will about it, you can't say Paul McCartney didn't put in the work.  Wonderful Christmastime features McCartney on guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals, even the creepy-sounding ‘choir of children.'  Makes one wonder why he even kept a band around.  You see the other members of Wings in the video, but the song was all McCartney.   Like a number of holiday classics that you heard about in the episode #92, The Jews Who Wrote Christmas, Wonderful Christmastime was written on a ‘boiling hot day in July', and recorded during sessions for the McCartney II album.  It apparently took the former Beatle just ten minutes to pen the song which – some of us find that more readily-believable than others.  One of the most memorable elements of the song is the odd synthesiser sound that punctuates it throughout.  That is, if you care to know, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which was also used on the hit songs Bette Davis Eyes and What a Fool Believes.  Though I suppose it's still a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 even if you don't care to know.   It peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart and has since become of the most widely played Christmas songs on radio.   Bonus fact: The Beatles only really had one Christmas release – Christmas Time Is Here Again, which was distributed to their fan club in 1967.  I imagine that would fetch a pretty pence on the secondary market. [sfx typing] checking ebay…Oh, they're actually pretty cheap.     If you don't like the song, you're not alone.  McCartney himself isn't all that keen on it, but he has begun playing it on UK tours in recent years.  You gotta give the people what they want and clearly enough people want Wonderful Christmastime.  According to the Forbes website, McCartney earns over $400,000 royalties from the song every year, though other sources claim that figure is probably the cumulative total. Little Drummer Boy As time passes, tastes change, culture shifts, new things are created and old things fall away.  We rarely ride in one-horse open sleighs –I can't remember the last time I was even in a closed one-horse sleigh– and it seems really strange to us that people sat about telling ghost stories.  So maybe that's why I don't understand The Little Drummer Boy.  How is a drum solo an appropriate gift for a sleeping infant and the woman who just squoze him out in a cow-shed?  The ox and lamb kept time?  That's literally the drummer's only job.  Well, that and making the rest of the band's drinking problem look reasonable.  Hey, what's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?  You only have to punch the info into the drum machine once.  [sfx rimshot] What do you call a drummer who broke up with his girlfriend?  Homeless.  [sfx rimshot]  Don't worry, drummers, this abuse isn't exclusive.  What do you call the pretty girl on a bassist's arm?  A tattoo.  That's my time, good night!   How old do you think this slow, plodding song is?  I couldn't have put a year to my guess, but for some reason it surprised me that it was written in 1941.  The composure was a teacher named Katherine Kennicott Davis.  Originally called "Carol of the Drum" –does what it says on the tin– was based on an unidentified Czech carol and intended for choirs.  One group of singers took a liking to it and propelled it to success in 1951 - The Trapp Family Singers.   As boring as it is, The Little Drummer Boy lets us draw a straight line between the Trapp Family and ‘the lad insane' David Bowie.  In 1977, Bowie was 'actively trying to normalize' his career.  Debilitating drug addiction and accusations of Nazi-sympathizing threatened to sink his earning potential, so it was a no-brainer for him to appear on Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.  Crosby was a crooner and golden age Hollywood icon and seemed like a means to the end because, as Bowie said later, “my mom likes him.”  The promise by producers to promote the video for Bowie's single Heroes, fitting as poorly as it did in the middle of a holiday special, certainly didn't hurt either.  The special starred Crosby, his actual family, and stars of the day like the model Twiggy, who my mother has still not forgiven for coming along and making curvy, busty figures unpopular.     So Bing Crosby and David Bowie.  On paper, it made no sense.  But in reality…it made even less sense.  A negative amount of sense, if that's mathematically possible.  I mean, just look at this juxtaposition.  You can see the two together on the Vodacast app… Bowie arrived in a mink coat, an earring, and bright red lipstick….to appear alongside Bing Crosby.  Bowie agreed to producers' demands to tone his look down, but asked/begged the producers if there was anything else, anything at all, he could sing, letting them know in no uncertain terms that he hated the song.   "Ian Fraser, who co-wrote the 'Peace on Earth' portion, told The Washington Post in 2006. 'We didn't know quite what to do.' Instead of panicking, he and two other men working on the special — Buz Kohan and Larry Grossman — hunkered down at a piano in the studio basement and spent 75 minutes working up the tune.  Ever professionals, Bowie and Crosby perfected the new song in less than an hour."  It was that professionalism that actually brought the men together.  According to Crosby's daughter, Mary, who was 18 at the time and a big Bowie fan,  "Eventually, Dad realized David was this amazing musician, and David realized Dad was an amazing musician. You could see them both collectively relax and then magic was made."  Bonus fact: Mary went on to become an actress, starring in the hit TV show Dallas, but she isn't the only thespian the Crosby legacy produced.  Bing's granddaughter Denise will always have a place in my heart as Tasha Yar, first chief of security on the Enterprise D and if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe *you're* not cool enough to sit with *us* at lunch.   The special was recorded in mid-September, but Crosby would not see it released.  He died of a massive heart attack after a day of golfing in mid-October, so the special was aired posthumously at the end of November in the U.S. and on Christmas Eve in England.  Bizarrely, The single proved to be one of Bowie's fastest-selling singles, selling over 250,000 copies within its first month and being certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry one month after its release.  And what does it say about me that I had to do a second take, beause I read it as British Pornographic Industry.  They certify very different records.  One thing that helped propel that success was the fledgeling Music Television network, which in its original primitive state actually played music videos.  When it launched in 1981, there weren't really enough videos to fill up an entire channel, so they played what they had, including the 'Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy' clip, a lot.  This prompted RCA to issue an official release in 1982 with the arbitrary single B-side of "Fantastic Voyage" from The Lodger album.  Bowie was annoyed with that move, contributing to his departure from the label soon after.  Still, it was a high-charting single for Bowie in the post-Scary Monsters era, at least until Let's Dance came out three months later.   And that's…So the question was “Do they know it's Christmas?”.  Since Ethiopia is ⅔ Christian, yes.  I'd go out on a limb and say even the ⅓ that's Muslim knows. But the important thing is that 100% of the royalties go to the cause, and that figure sits north of $250 million.  Among the luminary names involved was a pre-beard George Michaels.  This was in his Wham days when he also recorded the song you're hearing now.  Recognize it?  To anyone who just lost Whamageddon… [sfx laughter]  Worth it.  Just passing it on after Red from Overly Sarcastic took me out during a video last year.  For everyone else, as the nearest Gen-X'er.  Remember…Thanks..     And that's…So the question was “Do they know it's Christmas?”.  Since Ethiopia is ⅔ Christian, yes.  I'd go out on a limb and say even the ⅓ that's Muslim knows. But the important thing is that 100% of the royalties go to the cause, and that figure sits north of $250 million.  Among the luminary names involved was a pre-beard George Michaels.  This was in his Wham days when he also recorded the song you're hearing now.  Recognize it?  To anyone who just lost Whamageddon… [sfx laughter]  Worth it.  Just passing it on after Red from Overly Sarcastic took me out during a video last year.  For everyone else, as the nearest Gen-X'er.  Remember…Thanks..    Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/david-bowie-bing-crosby-and-the-story-of-the-strangest-christmas-duet-ever-1.5008343 https://theconversation.com/christmas-earworms-the-science-behind-our-love-hate-relationship-with-festive-songs-89268 https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/worst-christmas-songs-of-all-time/3/ https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/story-behind-the-christmas-song-paul-mccartneys-wonderful-christmastime/ https://www.songfacts.com/facts/paul-mccartney/wonderful-christmastime https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/637970/banned-christmas-songs-past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunk_Song_(Christmas_Don%27t_Be_Late) http://www.christmassongs.net/chipmunks-christmas-song https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bagdasarian https://nowweknowem.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/david-sevilles-the-chipmunk-song-won-three-grammy-awards-today-in-1959-the-top-winner-at-the-inaugural-grammy-awards-now-we-know-em/ https://holidappy.com/holidays/History-of-Christmas-Carols-Little-Drummer-Boy https://www.newsweek.com/story-behind-bowie-bings-unlikely-holiday-duet-sends-welcome-message-divided-times-opinion-1478295

Cascade Vineyard ChurchPastor Glenn Schroder December 19th, 2021 “The Characters of Christmas: Don't Be Afraid”Scripture referencesLuke 2:8-20Song of Solomon 4:1Zephaniah 3:15Matthew 28:30Ephesians 3:19 www.cascadevineyard.orgSupport the show (https://cascadevineyard.org/give)

Greg and Bob discuss a plant that everyone will probably recognize. Amaze your friends at holiday parties with the story of mistletoe. Our sources for this episode include: The Golden Bough by James George Frazer (available via Project Gutenberg) Merry covid Christmas: Don't kiss under the mistletoe, advises British minister 12 Things to know about Mistletoe

Gillian and Matt share their list of cozy gifts for the holidays! Cozy in the News: Turkeys Take Over College Campuses / Elfcore Gillian's Gift Ideas: Gift 1: Hibi Incense Matches Gift 2: Smoky Citrus Ornaments from Flamingo Estate Gift 3: Winter Wax Seals Gift 4: DIY Miniature Garden Kit from Shop PBS Gift 5: “Celebrate with Kim-Joy: Cute Cakes and Bakes to Make Every Occasion Joyful”  Matt's Gift Ideas: Gift 1: Christkindlmarket Gift Box  Gift 2: Headband for listening to music in bed  Gift 3: Remote Control Candles  Gift 4: Botanical Garden Membership (make sure it's reciprocal) Gift 5: “Hayao Miyazaki” Soothing Sounds: Reba McEntire's “I Needed Christmas”Norah Jones' Christmas Don't Be Late 

Norah Jones “I Dream Of Christmas": ”Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)” ”Christmas Don't Be Late” ”Christmas Glow” ”White Christmas” ”Christmastime” ”Blue Christmas” ”It's Only Christmas Once A Year” ”You're Not Alone“ ”Winter Wonderland” ”A Holiday With You” ”Run Rudolph Run” ç ”Christmas Time Is Here” ç ”What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?” Hiss Golden Messenger “The Sounding Joy: Hiss Golden Messenger Meets Revelators on South Robinson Street”: “Shine” “Grace Version” Escuchar audio

In this episode of The Life Transformer Show, Tara looks at getting back to habits after Christmas. Looking at what not to do. Then look at what you can do to start building those habits back in that stick and keep you on the right track. What You Will Learn In This Episode: What not to do to get back into habits after Christmas Don't look for “quick win products” and don't interact with them Don't jump on Short term quick fixes How to find a coach that works well for you Get some regular exercise More about strength based workouts Benefits of walking Managing your eating habits   How To Contact Tara Hammett: tarahammett.com Facebook

Our final episode of 2020...and we've got SANTA!!! Join Jared, Richard, and Clint as we talk with Lamar May - a professional Santa Claus. Lamar has a great perspective on what being Santa means to him and what it could and should mean to all of us!From all of us at SOUL to SOUL - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!See Lamar and Ju...I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Claus at https://www.facebook.com/Santa-Lamar-143280112371202#_=_ Questions or comments for us? Reach us at soultosoulcast@gmail.comPLEASE share this with your friends and family! Follow us on Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.Thanks to Blake Davison (@blakerdavison) for the artwork!Thank you to Acappella Companies for the use of the song, "Acappella." https://acappella.org/store/acappella/conquerors/ (Les Carter and Susan Sisko - Clifty Records)and to...Durant for the use of "Christmas Don't Be Late." https://acappella.org/store/durant/durant-christmas/

Jesus the Savior was born in Bethlehem! Also a reading of "Christmas Don't Never Come Here" by Bill Flannagan.

"Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause talks about being approached to be the Bachelorette more than 10 years ago! Plus, she shares her thoughts on the current season of the show and opens up about her friendship with fellow "Dancing with the Stars" contestant Kaitlyn Bristowe. Plus, Tayshia, Joe, and Hannah Ann dive into the "Click Bait" headlines of the week: Kanye West Gives Kim a Hologram of Her Dead Father for Her Birthday Chrishell Stause Was Considered for 'Bachelorette' More Than 10 Years Ago Mariah Carey Announces 'It’s Time' for Christmas Don’t forget to rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thanks to our sponsors: Noom: Noom.com/ClickBaitHoney: JoinHoney.com/ClickBaitAwara: AwaraSleep.com/CBAIT

Sometimes the lyrics are so clever and this is a song chalked full of them! I truly enjoy the song Having a Record Year by Eric Church's voice and the imagery I get from this song. Join me, let's explore my memories with a beat! Gonna stalk me on social?  Let me help you... @virtuallyyoupodcastva (FB & IG) ...heck, join me in my FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1884183095057195 **Full Transcript   Tiffany Hello Podcast land. Thank you for joining me for another episode. I know last week's was really long so if you did listen to the full episode, I really appreciate it. I just felt like Sarah had so many awesome things to contribute and explain and so I kept it all. Today I'm gonna go over Eric Church’s song, from 2015 called Having a Record Year. And I don't know about you guys, but I am not having a record year. 2020 has been crazy. It has been full of challenges and triumphs and word of the year is probably pivot. I'm going to read the first set of lyrics and just kind of break it down, how I see it. So it says since you turn the tables on me. I've been steady and learning lonely, keeping this turntable spinning, everything from Jones to Jennings. I just love that he references “the greats.” And that was kind of what I liked about the My Church song, is that she referenced some of “the greats” as well. You know, we all have great memories or you know certain songs from “the greats” spark certain memories. So I just love those references. He says, slowly planning my survival in a three-foot stack of vinyl and think about that. That's a yard. So a three-foot stack of vinyl. This guy's got a lot of music to listen to. And I'm sure he's got a lot of heartbreak to get over. I know when I would have a heartache, I would pick a song and I would listen to it over and over and over again. My grandfather had made a bunk bed for me. And I remember sitting in that bunk listening to Jewel, two certain songs by her, You Were Meant for Me and Foolish Games. And when I broke up with my boyfriend, I just remember sitting up there, listen to those songs over and over again, just crying my heart out sometimes singing my heart out. And also listening to Fergie Big Girls Don't Cry. I love that song and I love her vibrato. And I just love her. Anyway and then he says, I've been having a record year, and I'm sure he means that quite sarcastically. But also, realistically, as he really has this three foot stack of records in front of… And so he's having a record year as he's listening to all of them. And I'm sure all of the memories that come with all of those records. You know, maybe him and his wife or his girl danced to that song or maybe they fell in love to that song or you know maybe it was after a really awesome night out on the town. And that was just a highlight song for the evening. I just think about, you know, all those memories that must be flooding him and probably bumming him out too. Next, he says I bet you thought before you left, I just sit in silence by myself and turn this house into a jail. And that's really what we do, isn't it? We get hurt by somebody, and we just kind of close off and we stay in our bed or set up permanent camp on the couch, just Netflix till our heart feels better. You know, wherever that safe space is for us we just kind of stay there and wallow in our feelings until we feel like we can face people, society again. Okay dying slowly and a living hell. But loves got a funny way of keeping score. You're leaving lit up my scoreboard. I usually make it through side A sober. And it took me a long time to get those words “side A sober.” I had to look them up, but it really reminded me of when we used to go to my grandparent's house for the holidays. They had the Chipmunks 45 of Christmas Don't be Late. And we would always listen to that. But I remembered, Oh yeah, there was a side one and side two when it got to a certain point you had to flip that record over. So that was kind of a fun memory that came from listening to this song. And then he says, having a record year again, all bets are off when I slipper over, one bourbon one scotch one beer. And I got to do it [Singing]”a one bourbon, one scotch, a one beer.” I'm not always in tune but I do love music. And again, it's just that reference. He flips it over. And now it's time to drink. You know he's in his feelings and he's gonna have a drink. But I also bet that that song, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One beer, by George Thorogood was on side two. I mean or on side, you know side B. How cool would that be if that was a reference to where that song actually was on the record? I don't have the record so I can't tell you. If you guys have the record, Hey, shoot me a DM all my social handles are in the show notes. So feel free to reach out to me and, and let me know if that song really is on the B side of that record. And then he says he's having a record year. And that was probably one of the records that he was listening to. So he's having a record year sarcastically. He’s having a record year with all the records, and now he's having a record year with that record too. Then the next verse says, quarter notes and Hanks halftime. And again, I would love to know if Hank's music was normally in halftime. That would make sense. And I again, just love how the lyrics fit in the rhyming sense but the lyrics fit as far as a record and music that Hank had. You'll have to let me know… are pounded in this heart of mine. Song to song I pass the time with the speakers on 10. And I love that because when I'm upset. And when I'm really happy. My music goes loud. And I am singing out those lyrics, at the top of my lungs. Next To You says you're good and gone keeps me up all night, along with the Songs in The Key of Life. So I had to look that up. That's actually Stevie Wonder, and I was surprised because the songs are very upbeat. So I wouldn't expect that in the song about you know his girls left him and he's bummed out. But, I suppose if you have a three-foot stack of records they can't be all where they bum you out, right? Some of them have to be upbeat. And then also, you know, maybe he's trying to cheer himself up. Maybe he puts a couple of happy songs on after One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. Probably not just one of each. But he's partying at home, you know all alone and he's got the records poor ol boys having kind of a little bit of a pity party, but rightfully so. She's left him, she's out there doing God knows what as he says in his lyrics. You're out there now doing God knows how, and I'm stuck here, having a record year he's kind of feeling sad for himself. He's got another reference to his crappy year. You know being a little bit sarcastic. I'm stuck here having a record year. Okay, and this is probably my favorite, favorite verse of this song. You're leaving left me going crazy. I'm counting on a needle to save me. I drop it in the groove, and we go round and round and down in a spiral. When I first listened to this I was like oh my gosh this guy's doing drugs. But that's not the case, he's listening to songs on records. And he's, he's counting on that music to save them. So when I did that Marren Morris review of My Church, it's that religious experience that you have when you're listening to music and it just kind of makes everything else melt away. And you can navigate through whatever issues are kind of bumming you out at the time. And I would say, I've never counted on a needle to save me. Probably cuz I don't have a record player. I missed my calling as a comedian. Wouldn't you say? No, I mean, I've definitely like counted on music to get me through something. Because music does that it just heals our souls and makes us feel better, or makes us forget about the crud for a little while. Yeah, so he's talking about the needle on the record player he drops it in a groove. And how cool because records actually have grooves and it goes round and round, just like a record. But I think he's referencing how their relationship probably went round around in a downward spiral. And then obviously she ended up leaving. He says I guess I really ought to call and thank you, I discovered Redheaded Stranger got down with old James Brown and found New Grass Revival. If you find your way back, I owe you a beer, for my record year. He's going through all these records and he ends up finding, you know, maybe a style of music that he likes or an artist that he likes. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I didn't know Redheaded Stranger, it’s Willie Nelson's album. So that was kind of fun I love doing some of these song reviews because I do get to learn about music in general, and other artists so that was really kind of cool. And then he says, you know that he's having a record year again. And I just think it's kind of funny or applicable to texting, right? We have to be careful how we shoot that text to somebody because you never know how the other person is receiving it. He could mean he's having a record year like he's having the best year of his life. He could mean he's having a record year like he's listening to all the records in that three-foot stack of vinyl. Or he could mean, oh yeah, I'm really having a record year, like most of us in 2020. And again, I would just kind of like to know what you guys thought when you first heard it. Did you think he was having an awesome year? Did you think he was having a crappy year? You know we listen to those songs, the first time, and we think we know what the song is about until you hear for the fifth or sixth time and you go oh wait a minute, this guy's not having a very good year. So just kind of curious how you heard it the first time. Thank you so much for joining me and I just really, this is one of those songs that has always kind of stuck with me. I love that I get this vibe, you know like that cowboy with his hat down. He's got a toothpick coming out of the side of his mouth, his old lady just left him, thinking about having a drink or, you know what, what the hell I'm gonna put a record on. So he puts a record on, he kind of gets into the groove of it. He stumbles over the counter to make another drink. He's flipping it over, or decide B or I guess he's already been on side B, going through those memories and thinking man, “Son of a gun. She's gone.” You know, light filtering through, dust being exposed for the light that's filtering through just a really cool. You know, sad ol boy and his low ball of whiskey and memories. I hope you guys can kind of envision it the same way, and look forward to talking to you guys again next week. Thanks so much for joining me!

I'm sitting at “the lot” (Corner of 62nd and Broadway) at 7 am waiting to see if Anne comes in early to start hiding records.  I can see the lot across 62nd Street to the East where the two grandfather oaks still stand.  In 1981, when Don & I fell in love, our little love nest, a tattered travel trailer was parked between those big trees.  So many wonderful memories flood my mind that it is difficult to record yesterday's events.  I love and miss him so much.   Within 24 hours of Anne telling Don's girls about his disappearance, they managed to have  a pow wow electing Donna Pettis as their spokesperson and hired Ross Peaveyhouse, Esquire who advertised heavily as a Will & Probate Attorney.  They sure didn't leave any time for trying to find Don nor for grieving.  Anne & Donna Pettis called me from the office to let me know that they had decided to appoint a conservator (Anne).   Anne told everyone that there is no power of attorney, but then told me that she has my Will and the Power of Attorney I gave to Don in 1992 just before our Anniversary.  I asked about the reciprocal Will and Power of Attorney Don gave me that same day and she said it did not exist.  It seems strange that she can find mine, but not his.  They should have been kept together.  I had forgotten about preparing either  of the documents until she reminded me of mine that she had.  When Don had started going to Costa Rica so much we had revised his to add jurisdiction in any Country.  I have been too busy looking for Don and running our business and refuge to spend any great deal of time searching for a lost paper.  After the strange call from Anne and Donna Pettis, I spent the night searching until I located the original Will and Power of Attorney dated 11/96.   Knowing how bitter and suspicious of his kids Don was, I am dumbfounded that Anne would think it was okay to invite his daughters down to the office to go through the books and bank accounts.  These are the same girls who tried to take Don to the cleaners via his ex-wife and who Anne says “bald-faced lied” to the court to help their mom get another million dollar settlement four years after the first one.  I spent all day Thursday in the office with her and Madeline and let her hang herself with her own rope.  (A nice little rope trick my mother taught me.)   I remember the first Christmas Don and I shared in our little love nest.  Don had set up the cutest little tree and had decorated it all in white angels.  Angel was what Don has always called me.  He was the one who started me collecting angels.  He bought a nameplate for me that said “Angel”.  He brought me little plastic angels and when Pearlie Mae died he sent a ceramic angel praying over a cat.  It still sits on my desk to remind me that “all good kitties go to heaven”.   I made curtains for our love nest and tried to make it cheery because often I'd sit there for hours waiting for him to find time to sneak back there to see me.  Don had told me his name was Bob Martin and that he was just a lot boy for his slave driving employer, Don Lewis.  That was why he would have to sneak around to see me.  I was 19 and “Bob” Don was my life.  It was a year or more later before one of Don's new secretaries accidentally gave away his secret.   This just in:  Paul Newman in Costa Rica triplex called to ask when Don's flight will be arriving on Sunday.  I updated him and he at least pretended to be surprised and said he would call if Don showed up down there.  I told him to let Don know that his kids are seizing his assets and figured that would get Don on the phone right away.   Later that day:  I drove to the office 3 hours early and noticed that several other people seemed to be watching the building.  How many laps around the block can you make in a pickup truck towing a boat and not look suspicious?  The little green compact car must have made twenty laps alone.   At 9:15 Donna Pettis drives up and tells me that Anne did not want to give me the keys to the office and that she was meeting with her attorney.  Donna Pettis wanted me to come with her to her Attorney's office to appoint a conservator, but I told her that I was not comfortable speaking with her attorney since I am still un-represented.  We drove off and I called my dad and asked him to get guys and trucks and come to the office.   Suspecting there would be a huge fight, I drove home to get my Power of Attorney.  The code for the alarm that Anne gave me the night before, must have been changed, because we could not shut off the alarm and the police arrived.  I showed them the POA and my dad explained the situation to him, so he left.  We loaded all of the file cabinets and drawers that we could fit into the two pickup trucks and the Jeep.   In the interim, Anne accompanied by her attorney, came in and she asked for her personal items.  She tried to take the Don Lewis and United Truck and Trailer check books, but Kenny Farr caught her and made her put them back.  She admitted to having $2200.00 in cash from the weeks rent payments, but refused to turn it over.  She said she was going to turn over $250,000.00 in properties in her name to the Attorney, Leroy Merkle and that I shouldn't bother her about the $2200.00.   Then she started screaming and crying that I took her two tins of pennies, nickels and dimes that she was saving for her grand babies and a box with her personal files in it.  I told her that the Jeep was already packed, but that I would sort through it carefully and return anything of hers to her.  She had a fit and demanded that we unload until we found her boxes, and I refused and her attorney told her she should try to leave gracefully.  She kept trying to finagle the boxes, but I wouldn't give in.   There must be a reason she would put up such a huge fight, for what was supposed to be just her tax records and personal memorabilia.  In her hysteria she said, in front of her attorney, my dad and Kenny Farr that she had compromised her scruples for Don for the last time.  When I asked what she meant she said that Don made her forge documents and sign other people's names.   Donna Pettis and her husband both came and tried to slow us down, as did Wendell, but we just kept packing until we were out of room.   I was last in our convoy and picked up Burger King meals for everyone as we approached the refuge.  It was about 2:00 pm at the latest when we ate and then began unloading.  I spent the rest of the day and most of the night separating the old from the new and our business records from Anne's personal life.  One box seemed to hold nothing but the tax and medical records of the last few years for her and all of her children.   I started to just set that box by the door for her, but remembered how adamant she had been and resigned myself to the boring task of going through it a page at a time.  Hidden within the pages I found a treasure trove of documents that would be worth a small fortune to the highest bidder.  Foremost, was the Will and Power of Attorney that Don executed in 1992 naming me as his attorney and sole heir (the one she said never existed, despite the fact that she notarized the thing), secondarily was the original 1988 GALTA Trust which left the remainder of our estate to Don's children (even though this had been revised and originals left with Anne that removed his children entirely) and last but not least the most recent original PSRL Land Trust.   I can't think of any reason why she would need to hide these in a box filled with only her personal documents.  They have no trash pickup there so Don brings the office trash here and it is often burned, which means someone could accidentally stumble across these documents if she were to try and throw them away.   The safest way to dispose of them would be to slip them into a box from her home and destroy or hide them there.  This box was under her desk and had nothing else in it, except her personal stuff.   The rest of the stuff I found made me wonder what it is that she and Madeline do all day.  It was the biggest, nastiest, dustiest mess you've ever seen, with no rhyme or reason.  Still in the top desk drawers were receipt books and deposit slips from the early 1980's.  Everything it would take to run that office would fit in two file cabinets, if it were all in the same two cabinets.  The house next door to Anne's, that she keeps insisting was her own doing and nothing of Don's, was paid for with 4 cashier's checks purchased by Don and made payable to the Clerk of the Circuit Court.  I wonder if Don knew?   I found a pile, two inches thick of all of the tax certificates held in mostly Anne's name and some in Gale Rathbone's name.  These will be paying off for years and I would never know.  I found arrest records on Anne's son Jesse (who she said hated Don, but the feeling was mutual).  The police report said that Jesse cut someone off in traffic for shooting him a bird and Jesse roared up, blocking traffic, opened the guy's door and punched him in the mouth hard enough to bust it open.  His hearing is coming up Sept. 2, 1997 and Anne has just been bragging to everyone about how she raised her kids right from watching all the mistakes Gladys Lewis Cross and Don made in raising their brood.   The detectives asked me to fax them maps to the properties in Costa Rica when they called me at the office earlier today.  Donna Pettis had called them raising Cain because I was moving the office. I asked the detectives if they had a problem with that, and they asked if they could look at it when it gets to its new location.  I told them they could and they said there was no problem with me moving stuff then.  I also faxed them the long distance calls that Sprint sent and asked if they want me to check them out, or asked if I should wait until they do a preliminary search.  I reminded them of how weird I thought it was that Alvin Coulter and Joe Ryan were the first to call and ask me to keep them posted on any news about Don.   Same date, different entry:   Friday 9:00 am passed and no sign of Anne but Donna Pettis, Don's eldest daughter, pulled up and told me she and her sisters were meeting with their attorney and going to have Anne appointed as Conservator so that no one but Anne would have access to the office.  She asked me to come with her to her Attorney and consent to this order and I told her I needed to find legal counsel and would meet with them later.  I told her that I had Don's Power of Attorney and that there was no need to appoint a conservator to run our business.  Thinking back on how defensive Anne had been and all of the illegal transfers to her maiden name, I reasoned that she had persuaded Don's children to appoint her conservator so that she could destroy all documentation giving me the authority to run the business since she always had originals of the Power and the Will and the Trusts, although since Don's disappearance she has started saying she didn't remember the documents but that she was looking for them for me.   I called our crew and told them to bring every man and every vehicle they could find to the office. In three hours all of the files we could load were on their way to my home.   For entertainment purposes only.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 48 where today we start Season 3. It’s so good to be back! I’m generally a person who’s comfortable within my own skin. I’ve never been very good athletically. I’m OK with that. I’m not very good at fixing things. I like to say it’s because I don’t have the right tools. I never buy tools, and don’t accept them as gifts, because if I did, I couldn’t use that as an excuse for not being able to repair anything. Rather than tools, I have this principle I live by that if something’s broken, wait 2 weeks, and about 10% of the time the problem will fix itself. The one exception is with cars. Car problems rarely ever fix them self. Not too long ago, for example, I had a minor plumbing problem that I didn’t know to fix. So I waited, actually just overnight, and the next morning a solution came to mind that worked. I didn’t have to go looking for help. None of these personal deficiencies, and others like them, get me down. But there is one thing that does. One quality I lack that I am envious of others who have what’s missing in my life. I know there’s something like this in your life, too. Something you’d like to change about yourself, that you can’t. Something that’s missing that others have that you want for yourself. Listen in and I’ll tell you how I learned to work through this, because if I can work though it, you most certainly can, too. So here’s the story. I’ve always wanted to be a person who embraces music, especially to sing. But music has never been part of my life. Don’t listen to music on the radio or on my phone, except at Christmas Don’t go to concerts Don’t know how to sing, but always admired people who do Carol sings well. Heard her the other day from outside our ladies locker room down stairs. It was beautiful Her husband Terry has a terrific tenor voice that melts butter I’ve wanted that for my life, because in church, singing is at the heart of worship, and I want to worship God in a meaningful way But singing in church rarely does it for me. It rarely connects me with God There are moments when it does, however, when the singing of others will move me to tears. When I go to a performance of Handel’s Messiah each December, that connects me with God, through the singing of others. Many Christmas Carols connect me with God. Have 7+ hours of Christmas music on my phone. But it’s all about the singing of others, not my own. I was especially discouraged about all this until one day I came across Romans 12 in the bible I’ve read this passage numerous times before, but this time, starting in verse 4, I was amazed how the rest of chapter 12 was so relational. So many directives on how we are to relate to each other. It is so rich in relationship principles. To my way of thinking it’s the most relational passage of the bible. So steeped in how we can have better relationships. That was the last 17 verses of the chapter. But then I thought, what about the first 3 verses? Maybe I should look at those verses more closely because they provide the context for the rest of the verses that follow. And that’s when it hit me. The first 3 verses are about relationships, too. Several very deep relational truths there too. And the one that tipped it over the edge for me was the very first verse.  It’s where Paul writes “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.” And what follows this verse, all this relationship stuff, are examples of worship. Nothing at all is mentioned about music or singing. It’s all about how our relationships, when done the way God wants them done, is a means to worship and please him. This excited me. This discovery has changed how I view worship, and has over time, shaped what I want to do with the rest of my life. It’s to help people please God through their relationships. It’s why I started this podcast. You Were Made for This is about helping people transform their relationships into the best they can be. Because when that happens, we find joy in life, it’s what we were made for. We were made for this. We find joy in pleasing and worshiping God in our relationships with others, our relationship with God himself, and even in our relationship with our self. We’ll be looking at all of this in the episodes coming up. Here’s what I learned today. Here’s what struck me The way I worked through this desire for musical ability and talent, is to appreciate this quality in others, but to know I don’t have to be like others. That while they worship and please God because how they’re wired and gifted, to know I can please and worship God by another means: relationships. Music has the power to draw us into a deep relationship with God. But if how we are doing in our relationships isn’t pleasing to God, I don’t see where God is too impressed with our singing and music If our music is good, but our relationships are bad, we don’t please God at all. He’s more concerned with how we relate than the tunes we sing. And finally, and most encouraging to me and I hope you too, is that if our singing is bad and out of tune, but our relationships are good and in harmony with God, we worship him well. If you forget everything else, here’s the one thought, the one idea, I hope you remember from today’s episode We worship God and please him through our relationships, perhaps even more than the songs we sing and play. Here’s what you can do in response to today’s show. Ask God to show you someone he wants you bless today. Someone you have to sacrifice for, where you get nothing in return, except for the satisfaction that you’re pleasing God. Then ask the Lord for the strength to do so. Ask him to bless that other person through you, where he does the work through you. As always, another thing you could do is let me and your fellow listeners know what resonated with you about today’s episode. You can share your thoughts in the “Leave a Reply” box at the bottom of the show notes. Or you can send them to me in an email to john@caringforothers.org. Closing I hope your thinking was stimulated by today’s show, to both reflect and to act. So that you will find the joy God intends for you through your various relationships. Because after all, You Were Made for This. Now for Our Relationship Quote of the Week Nearly everything God asks us to do is in the context of relationships.                                                                                     ~ Richard Swenson, M.D. That’s all for today. See you next week. Bye for now.

And so we end the Christmas time song explainathon with what is undeniably a terrible song.    Jake forces Sky to listen to the Chipmunks monotone awful Christmas Don't Be Late.    https://popculturefailure.podbean.com/   popculturefailure@gmail.com Show: @FailedPopCultur Jake: @mdwstlvaffr Sky: @sandwichsurplus

In “Do You ---- Know”, Rodney shares that the celebration of Christmas provides you with a time to see, hear, and know God more personally. Anyone going through the experience of Christmas without seeing, hearing, and knowing the Christ of Christmas is a Christmas tragedy. The story and prophecy of Simeon in Luke chapter 2 teaches us some important lessons in how we can identify and know God’s will for our life. The role of the Holy Spirit in Simeon’s life is a powerful example for all believers and those interested in experiencing God in their life more regularly. When the Holy Spirit rests upon us, reveals his will and truth, and leads us right to the presence of Jesus. If you were to see and hear Jesus would you know and recognize him? The Holy Spirit can help you know the Christ of Christmas. Do you see God at work in your life? Do you hear heaven’s message? Do you know and can you recognize Jesus when he shows up in your life? Do you ---- Christmas? Don’t miss it

Coming into the holidays, what do you want for Christmas? Don’t get me anything I’m broke. Nick’s Thanksgiving showdown, pass the potatoes not the politics. All while the boys drink flat beers and Pedro continues to share too much information involving bodily fluids. Oh!! and we’re on our way to a massive black hole. Thanks for listening! Amor y Paz!!

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 108: A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY PT. 2     Welcome to Episode 108 of the “Awakening with Nathanael Wolf” podcast and radio broadcast.   Is there a great mystery encoded in Christmas? Don’t let this holiday season pass you by without finding out. Listen now and discover the mystery of the incarnation.   Notable series quotes: “In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard reminds us that where “transformation is actually carried out is in our real life, where we dwell with God and our neighbors. . . . First, we must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as the place of God’s kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are.” The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today. Alfred Hitchcock said movies are “life with the dull bits cut out.” Car chases and first kisses, interesting plot lines and good conversations. We don’t want to watch our lead character going on a walk, stuck in traffic, or brushing his teeth—at least not for long, and not without a good soundtrack. We tend to want a Christian life with the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us? Christ’s ordinary years are part of our redemption story. Because of the incarnation and those long, unrecorded years of Jesus’ life, our small, normal lives matter. If Christ was a carpenter, all of us who are in Christ find that our work is sanctified and made holy. If Christ spent time in obscurity, then there is infinite worth found in obscurity. If Christ spent most of his life in quotidian ways, then all of life is brought under his lordship. There is no task too small or too routine to reflect God’s glory and worth.” -Tish Harrison Warren in Liturgy of the Ordinary   Download the Sent Ones Unlimited app: The Sent Ones Unlimited app is the best way to listen to the podcast.  Please download the Sent Ones Unlimited app at the Apple App Store or on Google Play (search using the words Sent Ones Unlimited) for the latest episodes as well as our blog posts, ministry schedule, and much more--all right on your smartphone.  Plus, our app has a Bible with fourteen English translations (including the Amplified Bible and The Message) and an audio Bible in the English Standard Version. Another advantage of listening on the Sent Ones Unlimited app is that you don’t have to load iTunes on your computer, subscribe, and then manually sync to your phone. The app does all the work for you and downloads each new episode. We post each weekly broadcast to the website and the app on Monday mornings. If you have the app, you will automatically get every episode for free. You may also get every episode for free by subscribing to the podcast.  You can subscribe to this podcast at: iTunes Google Play RSS Feed Link: http://awakeningwithnathanaelwolf.libsyn.com/rss   If you are not going to listen using the Sent Ones Unlimited app, iTunes, or Google Play then we would suggest that you could use a podcast application on your iPhone or Android phone such as Instacast.  Another popular application for listening to podcasts is Downcast.      Applications like these make it easy to discover, subscribe, and listen to podcasts. You simply copy and paste the link to the RSS feed (also shown above) into the search bar of the app and it will find our podcast. They also automatically update your podcasts every time a new episode is released.     Share the love: If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. If you are listening on another platform that allows ratings and reviews please do the same.  That would help tremendously in getting the word out by raising the visibility of the show. We hope you enjoyed this podcast.  God uses people just like you to support the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited.  Please visit https://sentonesunlimited.org/donate/ to give a single gift of any amount or become a monthly partner. More about us: If you’d like to learn more about Nathanael Wolf, the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited, read Nathanael’s blog posts, see other resources, or view Nathanael’s upcoming schedule please visit www.sentonesunlimited.org.   Connect with Nathanael or Sent Ones Unlimited: Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Periscope   Contact Us: info@sentonesunlimited.org   We hope you enjoyed this podcast.  God uses people just like you to support the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited.  Please visit https://sentonesunlimited.org/donate/ to give a single gift of any amount or become a monthly partner.

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 107: A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY PT. 1     Welcome to Episode 107 of the “Awakening with Nathanael Wolf” podcast and radio broadcast.   Is there a great mystery encoded in Christmas? Don’t let this holiday season pass you by without finding out. Listen now and discover the mystery of the incarnation.   Notable series quotes: “In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard reminds us that where “transformation is actually carried out is in our real life, where we dwell with God and our neighbors. . . . First, we must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as the place of God’s kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are.” The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today. Alfred Hitchcock said movies are “life with the dull bits cut out.” Car chases and first kisses, interesting plot lines and good conversations. We don’t want to watch our lead character going on a walk, stuck in traffic, or brushing his teeth—at least not for long, and not without a good soundtrack. We tend to want a Christian life with the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us? Christ’s ordinary years are part of our redemption story. Because of the incarnation and those long, unrecorded years of Jesus’ life, our small, normal lives matter. If Christ was a carpenter, all of us who are in Christ find that our work is sanctified and made holy. If Christ spent time in obscurity, then there is infinite worth found in obscurity. If Christ spent most of his life in quotidian ways, then all of life is brought under his lordship. There is no task too small or too routine to reflect God’s glory and worth.” -Tish Harrison Warren in Liturgy of the Ordinary   Download the Sent Ones Unlimited app: The Sent Ones Unlimited app is the best way to listen to the podcast.  Please download the Sent Ones Unlimited app at the Apple App Store or on Google Play (search using the words Sent Ones Unlimited) for the latest episodes as well as our blog posts, ministry schedule, and much more--all right on your smartphone.  Plus, our app has a Bible with fourteen English translations (including the Amplified Bible and The Message) and an audio Bible in the English Standard Version. Another advantage of listening on the Sent Ones Unlimited app is that you don’t have to load iTunes on your computer, subscribe, and then manually sync to your phone. The app does all the work for you and downloads each new episode. We post each weekly broadcast to the website and the app on Monday mornings. If you have the app, you will automatically get every episode for free. You may also get every episode for free by subscribing to the podcast.  You can subscribe to this podcast at: iTunes Google Play RSS Feed Link: http://awakeningwithnathanaelwolf.libsyn.com/rss   If you are not going to listen using the Sent Ones Unlimited app, iTunes, or Google Play then we would suggest that you could use a podcast application on your iPhone or Android phone such as Instacast.  Another popular application for listening to podcasts is Downcast.      Applications like these make it easy to discover, subscribe, and listen to podcasts. You simply copy and paste the link to the RSS feed (also shown above) into the search bar of the app and it will find our podcast. They also automatically update your podcasts every time a new episode is released.     Share the love: If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. If you are listening on another platform that allows ratings and reviews please do the same.  That would help tremendously in getting the word out by raising the visibility of the show. We hope you enjoyed this podcast.  God uses people just like you to support the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited.  Please visit https://sentonesunlimited.org/donate/ to give a single gift of any amount or become a monthly partner. More about us: If you’d like to learn more about Nathanael Wolf, the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited, read Nathanael’s blog posts, see other resources, or view Nathanael’s upcoming schedule please visit www.sentonesunlimited.org.   Connect with Nathanael or Sent Ones Unlimited: Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Periscope   Contact Us: info@sentonesunlimited.org   We hope you enjoyed this podcast.  God uses people just like you to support the ministry of Sent Ones Unlimited.  Please visit https://sentonesunlimited.org/donate/ to give a single gift of any amount or become a monthly partner.

Brent Streams his 3D Printer – The Generations of Podcasts – Hair Splinter – Alvin and the Chipmunks – Black Belts – DRCSS Class Photos – Magnetic Hill Outro Song: “Christmas Don’t Be Late” by Alvin and the Chipmunks

I have been confronted many times for my position on the subject and even accused of being a heretic because I love to celebrate Christmas. I have been asked, “How can you say that you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and celebrate Christmas? Don’t you understand that it comes directly out of paganism?” Next they remind me, “God said, ‘You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree’” (Deuteronomy 12:2 NKJV). Then they explain how the Roman Catholic Church established the Christmas celebration mixing Babylonian paganism with Christianity. I understand where these good people are coming from. It would probably surprise my children and grandchildren to learn I actually taught these things early in my ministry. I did not always love to celebrate Christmas because of some very negative memories of the Christmas holiday, as a child. Promises not kept; alcohol abuse and angry arguments fill much of my Christmas memories from childhood. So when decorations went up and the carols started playing in the stores I became depressed. Christmas 1973 began to change all of that. Wanda and I been married three years, our first child was ten months old. Walking through a shopping mall with carols playing I was in a cloudy mood. Suddenly the music and the words broke through my negative thoughts. Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream from heaven afar Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia, Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born Silent night, holy night! Son of God love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face With dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth Jesus Lord, at Thy birth. Songwriters: Simon Lole, Silent Night lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC I heard the Lord gently speak to my heart, “Will you allow the memories of sinful behavior by your dad and stepmother cloud out the true meaning of the celebration? I began to softly sing the words with a new meaning. Over the next two weeks the music and the decorations took on a brightness they had not had before. That was a wonderful first Christmas with our daughter and some dear friends. A whole new perspective of Christmas began to grow in my heart until I read a teaching in the late 1970’s explaining the paganism of the holiday. Again, my attitude changed and I began teaching the paganism about Christmas. But, I still loved the music and I loved the spirit of Christmas. I loved how the Christmas carols clearly told the Gospel story and I loved the Nativity displays. Deep inside something was not reconciling. The spirit of Christmas, the biblical stories, the historical data of those who taught Christmas was pagan had a measure of incongruence that caused me to dig deeper. My first discovery was the origin of putting lights on the Christmas tree did not come from pagan practices but the heart of the Reformation leader, Martin Luther. While walking home one winter evening, with the words of a new song running through his mind, Martin was captured by the beauty of the stars twinkling on the boughs of the snow flocked evergreen trees. The beauty filled his heart so much he went home and wired candles on the branches of his Christmas tree and lighted them, celebrating Jesus the Light of the world. Why have I not heard that being taught, I wondered? My second discovery came through studying the writings of Dr. Alfred Edersheim, a foremost authority of Jewish history. In his monumental volume, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, he explains It is not coincidence that Jesus Christ was arrested and crucified on Passover. Nor was it a coincidence Jesus Christ’s birth was in a cave on the edge of the fields of Migdol Eder, meaning “the tower of the flock” (Edersheim, pg. 186). These were no ordinary fields. The shepherds that came to see the baby born in the stable cave were no ordinary shepherds. The sheep raised in these fields were for sacrifice at Passover. Would these sheep and shepherds be out in the field on a winter night of December? Dr. Edersheim addresses that important detail. “The same Mishnic passage [that addresses the law of the shepherds and raising sheep for Passover] also leads us to infer that these flocks lay out all the year round (Ederseim’s emphasis)… of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak” (pg. 187). He goes on to say, “There is no adequate reason for questioning the historical accuracy of this date [December 25th]. The objections generally made rest on grounds, which seem to me historically untenable” (pg. 187, footnote). As I continued to dig deeper into the history of celebrating Christmas, I made an important discovery. Yes, many of the Pilgrims and Puritans considered the celebration of Christmas pagan. Their position rested firmly upon their anti-Roman Catholic stance. I found the same juxtaposition in most of those today who write against the celebration of Christmas. However, careful and more thorough historical study will reveal the celebration of Christmas was previous to Constantine and Roman Catholicism. Believers in North Africa celebrated the birth of Christ on December 25th during the reign of Diocletian, that was before 311 AD and before Emperor Constantine. The more I studied the deeper historical roots of celebrating Christmas, the more I loved the holiday. While there may be pagan rituals that surround the December date and worldly traditions; that is only Satan seeking to steal the truth and attempting to kill the spirit of the season. 3 Reasons Why I Celebrate Christmas 1. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2 NKJV). Is it mere coincidence that Simeon and Judas, called Maccabaeus, led the cleansing of the Lord’s Temple and the restoration of true worship with the miracle burning of the Menorah for eight days in 166 BC took place on the 25th day of Chislev? Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights, commemorates the miracle. The month of Chislev corresponds with our month of December. While the Hebrew calendar varies from our Gregorian calendar, the 25th of Chislev and December 25th have often been the same date in history. Wouldn’t it be just like God to appoint the Lamb of God, Light of the World to be born in the fields of the Passover Lambs on the same day as the Festival of Lights? Put the lights on your house and light the Christmas tree. Celebrate with Martin Luther the beauty of Jesus Christ. Rejoice with the angelic host that Jesus Christ the Light of World has been born in Bethlehem’s stable. 2. We do not put up a Christmas tree in worship of an idol or pagan deity, rather, we put up the tree to celebrate, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV). The gifts are not placed under the tree in worship of an idol but to commemorate the gifts of the Magi and most important in celebration of the gift of salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. To be certain the world may sing, “Tannenbaum O Tannenbaum” in glowing worship of the tree, just as the world may celebrate the winter solstice. That does not replace or nullify the truth of Christ’s birth and His death on the cross. It certainly does not make it pagan or idolatrous to put up a tree and cover it with lights in memory and celebration of Jesus Christ removing the curse of sin from our life by hanging on the tree. If that were the case, displaying the cross would be a pagan practice and idolatrous and every church that has a cross on display should remove the cross. No one is calling for that. 3. Let the bells of Christmas resound. Fill the air with the beauty of their sound and the good news of the angelic message, “Peace on earth, good will toward men… For unto you is born this day in the city of David, as Savior which is Christ the Lord.” Even the advanced software, Starry Night, used by NASA and other astronomers around the world confirms the Magi from the east would have arrived at the home of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, to worship the toddler, born King of the Jews, on the date December 25 2BC. Christmas corresponds with the winter solstice the same as Resurrection Sunday corresponds with the spring solstice. While some become argue we should not celebrate Easter, but Resurrection Sunday, it does not nullify the significance and importance of celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there are some corresponding aspects of Christmas with the pagan rituals they should not nullify the significance and importance of celebrating the birth of the Savior; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; Immanuel, God with us; The Word become flesh; the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God; the King of Kings who will sit upon the throne of His father David, and of His Kingdom there will be no end. Celebrate. Turn on the lights. Ring the Bells. Rejoice. It’s Christmas!  

So this is Christmas, and what have they done, another year over, Kenny went to London, and so this is Christmas, Miles is Christmas Don, crappy gifts for a grandson, a wall full of dung. A very curry Christmas, and a happy new year, let's hope it's a good one, without any jeer. To all you fellow observers of Jesus's birthday, Merry Christmas! This week, Kenny talks about his Thanksgiving vacation to London and receiving crappy gifts as a child on Christmas. Miles talks about a movie he starred in, and how pissed he is about how his family decided to celebrate Christmas this year and that people still make fun of him.

The Children of the University of Michigan Children's Psychiatric Hospital, Christmas is comingKay Starr, (Everybody's Waiting' For) The Man With The BagVince Guaraldi, Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal Version)The Walkmen, Christmas Party (featuring Nicole Sheahan)Beat Happening, ChristmasTrue Love Forever, It's ChristmasWild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire, Santa ClausThe Sonics, Santa ClausThe Granville Williams Orchestra, Santa Claus Is Ska-ing To TownThe Beach Boys, Little St. NickPatton Oswalt, My Christmas MemoryAlvin & The Chipmunks, Christmas Don't Be LateAlvin & The Chipmunks, Christmas Don't Be Late (Nightmare Edition)Steve Martin, Five Christmas WishesRun DMC, Christmas in HollisThe Raveonettes, The Christmas SongThick Pigeon, Jingle Bell RockJohn Cale, A Child's Christmas in WalesHolly Golightly, Christmas Tree's On FireLeon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel, Baby It's Cold Outside