Tag Archives: Holidays

The Twelve Days Of CHRISTmas: Day One

December 14, 2007 4:29 am / 2 Comments /

The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the eginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th with the following day considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6.

The previous paragraph is from a web site I found that explains the Twelve days of CHRISTmas. It explains the symbology of the terms and history. This was news to me. I always thought the twelve days of CHRISTmas was a count-down towards CHRISTmas. The whole reason why I wanted to look into the twelve days of CHRISTmas was because I needed the original lyrics of the song in order to do a parody of it. Here are the original lyrics.

On the 1st day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
A Partridge in a Pear Tree

On the 2nd day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Two Turtle Doves

On the 3rd day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Three French Hens

On the 4th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Four Calling Birds

On the 5th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Five Gold Rings

On the 6th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Six Geese A-laying

On the 7th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Seven Swans A-swimming

On the 8th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Eight Maids A-milking

On the 9th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Nine Ladies Dancing

On the 10th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Ten Lords A-leaping

On the 11th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Eleven Pipers Piping

On the 12th day of CHRISTmas my true love gave to me…
Twelve Drummers Drumming

Even though I now know the truth about the twelve days of CHRISTmas, I will stick to my original idea and together we will sing my parody of the well known song. The way we will do this is I will start with an explanation of what the present day is and then I’ll present my lyrics. Some of the days are serious, some are funny and some of them are just plain weird. Today, being the first day of our count-down, I will start with a serious topic.

I cannot stand the phrase, “Happy Holidays.” I am so sick and tired of our politically correct culture that is overly concerned about offending people. That is one freedom this country does not grant; freedom from offense. CHRISTmas is about CHRIST and I absolutely refuse to apologize for it. If my wishing you a Merry CHRISTmas offends you, then move to another country. Just don’t you dare try to change the meaning of this Holy day- which is the original meaning of the word “holiday” in the first place.

This politically correct attitude is so infectious that stores and restaurants refuse to use the word CHRISTmas and will substitute it with holiday. I avoid shopping for CHRISTmas gifts at places that don’t use the word. I remember going into a place that sold CHRISTmas lights and holiday trees. WHAT?! Is there such a thing as holiday lights for holiday trees or do CHRISTmas lights work on holiday trees? Why should I spend my hard earned dollars at a place that wants my CHRISTmas money, but refuses to use the word?

I would like to encourage everyone reading this to make sure to let retailers and restaurants know where you stand on this issue. If you see the word “holiday”, ask to speak to a manager and complain. If you see “CHRISTmas,” ask to speak to a manager and THANK them! Letters and e-mails are great too.

This leads us to the first line of our twelve days of CHRISTmas parody. As you read through my new song, try to keep the melody of the original song in your head. I’ll bet some of the lines will stick there long after you want them to.

On the first day of CHRISTmas my true love said to me, “Complain about the holiday theme!”

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Hawaii-5, 2007

November 21, 2007 7:30 pm / Leave a Comment /

We are leaving today, but i wanted to post one more time before we leave. We’ve still yet to pack and try to fit all the gifts we bought at the swapmeet into our luggage. We brought one extra suitcase knowing that we were going to bring home WAY more stuff than we brought.

Here is a picture of the Poulos family with whom we stayed. This was taken at a food court in the Pearl City Mall. We wanted to thank them for letting us stay in their home with them by taking them out to dinner. We had something a little bit more extravagant in mind, but since the kids all seemed to want something different to eat, we ended up at the food court. Our dinner menu ranged from Chinese to pizza to tacos.

Steve and Lisa Poulos knew Becky when she lived here. She was saved and then started attending Pacific Islands Bible Church where she joined the Poulos college and career group and was discipled by Lisa. The last time we were here (10 years ago) they had onlly three children, the youngest of whom was merely months old. Now they’ve got four kids and we enjoyed hanging out and playing with all of them.

Thank you Poulos family for putting us up and for putting up with us!

This next picture is of Shark’s Cove. We went there to snorkel a few days ago, but the water was pretty rough in some spots and it was starting to rain. As you can see from this picture, we managed to find a calm place in the cove to snorkel. I have never been snorkeling so this was a completely new thing for me. I had no iea there were SO many fish swimming around my feet all the time.

This last picture is an example of how rough the water was outside of the reef. The thundering waves are awesome to hear and feel. It is a sound and feeling you will never forget.
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Hawaii-4, 2007

November 21, 2007 8:34 am / Leave a Comment /

Hawaiian sunset. Becky and I spent some time on Waikiki beach today. We parked at the zoo which has parking meters that cost 25 cents an hour. We didn’t have any change, but managed to find a quarter and a spot that still had one hour and nine minutes left on it. That gives us two hours and nine minutes.

Once it got near the time to either leave or feed the meter, the sun was too close to setting to walk away from the beach. We decided to stay and hope for the best. This first picture is of a huge barge in front of my setting sun. I was hoping that it wasn’t going to block it, but as you can see, there was plenty of time for the barge to move on. A few minutes later and we were able to catch my first live sighting of the sun setting into the ocean. It was beautiful!

Once we got back to the the car, we noticed a $35 parking ticket. We’re going to write a check for the fine and enclose these two pictures along with a little note.
The only thing it will say is, “It was worth it!”
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Hawaii-3, 2007

November 20, 2007 8:26 am / 1 Comment /

I have never seen so many rainbows in my life. Every day that we have been here, we’ve seen a rainbow. Two essential ingredients to rainbows are rain and sunshine and there are plenty of both here. This rainbow pictured here is right across the street from where we are staying. There is a valley right behind the house and the rainbow went right down into it. Very cool sight!

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Hawaii- 2, 2007

November 19, 2007 12:50 am / 3 Comments /

The beach. Ahhh! Guess which one is me. Yeah, I’m the really WHITE guy amongst all the brown bodies. If I were to lay down in the sand, I’d be camouflaged.

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