The Upside Down Christmas Tree.

A monk named St. Bonafice from Devonshire went to Germany. He spent time there preaching. He spent a lot of time in Thuringia. Now Thuringia is known as the birthplace of the industry dealing with Christmas Decorations. He used a triangular shape of the fir to describe the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, that makes up the Holy Trinity. As a result people started to worship the Fir tree as God's tree. (or better known as the tree in the garden of Eden). By the 12th Century the fir tree was being hung upside down from ceilings in Central Europe as a symbol of Christianity at Christmas Time.

The real history behind the upside down christmas tree remains quite vague, very little information is known about it.

The trend of hanging the upside down christmas tree has changed, the point of the fir tree pointing up to heaven . Many people believe that an upside down christmas tree is a sign of contempt.

Upside down christmas trees were popular for a short time and were originally just used as ,a marketing gimmick. It enabled customers to pick ornaments off easier and more conviently.

One other note on christmas trees while we're on the subject:
Christmas trees were not to be brought out and decorated until Christmas Eve (dec. 24th), rather than the first day of christmas (dec. 23rd). They are then to be removed after the 12th night which would be January 6th. To have your tree up before or after these dates was considered bad luck...just a thought for you :)

Amish Christmas

The Amish celebrate Christmas over two days
December 25th is for scripture reading, meditating and fasting and other religious activities. They reflect on the birth of Christ.
December 26th is for celebrating with family and friends. Having gatherings with friends and families, eating feasts or large meals and they actually do give gifts.

They do not believe or portray santa clause in their celebrations
Some do decorate a tree with candles, some write christmas cards.
Some do not.
Some Amish families exchange gifts by drawing names out of hats and exchanging one gift per person. The gifts they exchange are usually handmade or for use outside.
Younger Amish children recieve toys while older amish children recieve either something for a hope chest (if your a girl) or tools useful for the farm (if your a boy)
A few interesting facts for now....

I promise the blog is not dead!

Excuse my absence, I have been away exploring foreign lands and visiting dear friends...ok you got me I am not the super world traveller I would like to think I am but instead I went to disneyworld. That isn't so foreign like I would like it to be. I'd like to explore Ecuador, Nicaragua, Argentina...more of South America. I'd like to explore most of Europe except England because I hear it's a really dirty country. (anyone to prove me wrong on that?) Though maybe seeing the queen would be fun.
But For now disneyworld is where we went and it was fun. Exploring the parks, lounging by the pool. Enjoying the heat, I got a pretty sweet tan...only to return home to the city covered in snow, highways whited out by snow blowing freely across the countryside...and home to shovel this snow. I should have stayed at Disneyworld Longer...maybe avoided winter all together.

Google told me so....

So Google always has headlines and their "google" logo written in some interesting way...well it turns out it is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of the xray. One of the most important discoveries in science and health.

The xray was first discovered by german physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895. X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation. It was first utilised in a clinic in the united states in early 1896.

Some facts about xray and wilhelm conrad roentgen:

• born in lennep in rhenish prussia
• an only child of a merchant and manufacturer of cloth
• considered the father of diagnostic radiation
• First Nobel prize in physics in 1901.
• married to anna bertha ludwig
• had one child a daughter who they adopted at the age of six, it was his wife's brothers child
• the japanese word for xray is rentogen
• in turkey it is roentgen
• in lithuanian its rentgeno
• He died on february 10, 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine (cancer)
• Upon his death all his personal and scientific correspondence was destroyed in keeping with his will.

So hopefully you have learned a little bit of information regarding the founding father of xrays...it is rather interesting I think.

Happy xray day everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving....

Enjoy the Turkey....

Filed a complaint....

So I decided to get some chicken. I was hungry, the kids were already fed. So we packed up the car and went to our local chicken stop and hurried through the drive-through. Well there was a long ling up, the sun was in our eyes and the kids were quickly getting bored and wanting to return home.
We got to the window and I handed the drive through clerk my money. She got busy and didn't give me my change. She handed my meal and I asked her what was in the bag...it was the wrong meal. So I handed it back to her and she got the right meal. I kept asking her, do you have my change? Do you have my change? She handed me the right meal and told me "your change is in the bottom of the bag." I looked at her and said "Are you for real? Why would you put my change in my food bag?" "That's just gross!" She apologized profusely and I drove off furious and angry. I figured there was no reason to tell the manager of the resteraunt but to go above to greater authority. So I went online and filed my complaint with the head company and also dialed the complaint line, only to be put on hold for awhile, so I hung up. But be warned the complaint went up and beyond to the head of this chicken joint....we'll see what comes of this complaint...I am curious because i did write quite a lengthy letter to them...

Lost: One farmer in the city...

So It would seem my neighbor decided an oil pump wasn't enough to decorate his front yard with. He's got the brick deck in the background. A brand new fence to defend his yard from the intruding neighbor on the corner. (Which if you ask me is ugly because behind that fence is some lovely landscaping!)

He planted some lovely fake astro turf lawn that remains green all year round and you don't need to mow it. Maintence free yard work for the old guy and now to top it all off he has added a little john deer green what-cha-ma-call-it thingy. I don't even know what that green and yellow wheel thing is that he has suddenly erected on the front lawn. I think he's just doing it to piturb the nice neighbor next door. Frankly he's just turning our neighborhood into the "Funny Farm". I won't even mention how many times he has a tractor parked in his driveway either. Someone has definitely lost some marbles.