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Posted on 12/24/2005 9:08:05 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Holiday observances during the American Civil War  Click the flag  Lonely camp scene from an 1862 Harper's Weekly entitled "Christmas Eve". Even with all the sorrow that hangs, and will forever hang, over so many households; even while war still rages; even while there are serious questions yet to be settled - ought it not to be, and is it not, a merry Christmas?" Harper's Weekly, December 26, 1863  Harper's Weekly depicts a family separated by war in its January 3,1863 edition. For a nation torn by civil war, Christmas in the 1860s was observed with conflicting emotions. Nineteenth-century Americans embraced Christmas with all the Victorian trappings that had moved the holiday from the private and religious realm to a public celebration. Christmas cards were in vogue, carol singing was common in public venues, and greenery festooned communities north and south. Christmas trees stood in places of honor in many homes, and a mirthful poem about the jolly old elf who delivered toys to well-behaved children captivated Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. But Christmas also made the heartache for lost loved ones more acute. As the Civil War dragged on, deprivation replaced bounteous repasts and familiar faces were missing from the family dinner table. Soldiers used to "bringing in the tree" and caroling in church were instead scavenging for firewood and singing drinking songs around the campfire. And so the holiday celebration most associated with family and home was a contradiction. It was a joyful, sad, religious, boisterous, and subdued event.  "The Christmas Tree" by F. A. Chapman. Many of the holiday customs we associate with Christmas today were familiar to 1840s celebrants. Christmas cards were popularized that decade and Christmas trees were a stylish addition to the parlor. By the 1850s, Americans were singing "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem," and "Away in a Manger" in public settings. In 1850 and 1860, Godey's Lady's Book featured Queen Victoria's tabletop Christmas tree, placed there by her German husband Prince Albert. Closer to home, in December, 1853, Robert E. Lee's daughter recorded in her diary that her father - then superintendent at West Point - possessed an evergreen tree decorated with dried and sugared fruit, popcorn, ribbon, spun glass ornaments, and silver foil. Clement Clarke Moore, a religious scholar who for decades was too embarrassed to claim authorship of the 1822 poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," was now well-known for his tribute to Santa Claus. "Santa Claus" made his first public appearance in a Philadelphia department store in 1849, marking the advent of holiday commercialism. For enslaved African Americans, the Christmas season often meant a mighty bustle of cooking, housekeeping, and other chores. "Reward" for these efforts was a suspension of duties for a day or two and the opportunity for singing, dancing, and possible brief reunions with separated family members. Further gestures of "goodwill" by masters who saw themselves as benevolent owners were small and the semi-annual clothing allotment. By 1860, many worried about civil unrest, fearful this Christmas would be the last before the outbreak of war. An Arkansas diarist writes: "Christmas has come around in the circle of time, but is not a day of rejoicing. Some of the usual ceremonies are going on, but there is gloom on the thoughts and countenances of all the better portion of our people."
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Good to see you Fiddlstix. Merry Christmas.
Beautiful graphic AZ, Merry Christmas.
All I want for Christmas is my Flag ping list. Really, I don't have it with me, so if I missed you, my apologies.
Hiya Sam
Merry Christmas ma'am
Handsome crew of pidgeon pad testers there.
Tsk, tsk. Don't remember your boy scout motto?
Hi miss Feather.
Bittygirl is on sensory (and chocolate) overload already. We haven't even opened most of the presents yet.
She received a baby doll stroller (to go with the unopened doll) and is having a blast giving here stuffed kitty rides everywhere.
I never made it past Wolf.
| December 25, 2005
First Breath
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Russell Nagy's moving choral anthem "The Promise" contains these words:
Silently by night,
in mortal flesh enshrouded,
He who framed the mountains
draws first breath.
Far from human sight,
the Promise ne'er forgotten
Is in love begotten
to conquer death.
© 1993 by High Street Music
The marvel of Christmas is that the Maker of the mountains took His first breath as a baby. The One who framed the universe assumed human flesh so He could save us. The incarnation is the astounding combination of who descended from heaven to earth, how He arrived, and why He came. "For by Him all things were created . . . . And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. . . . For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, . . . having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:16-20).
When Jesus took His first breath on earth, a loving promise of God the Father was fulfilled. The Christ-child whom the angels announced and the shepherds proclaimed had come to die.
The baby in the manger was "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (v.15), "in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (v.14).
O come, let us adore Him! —David McCasland
ping
Merry Chtirstmas to you FRiend!
From my family to yours . . .
From my pets to your pets . . .
May we all have a blessed Christmas and see our beloved troops return home safely.
Merry Christmas, handsome and pretty family. Pretty cats too but I notice there are no dogs. :-(
Merry Christmas Mayor.
We expect pictures later!
Merry Christmas Snippy!
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Ask, and ye shall receive.
Spiderboy helps install a new disposal for Grandma.
Spiderboy watches the lamp after eating the brownies.
Congratulations, it's twins!
Spiderboy shows off his Ultimate Light Saber. He can make a bunch of different sabers, inlcuding Darth Maul's double saber.
The old man received a lawn in a box. Really. I got about 5 pounds of Buffalo Grass seed. Maybe I can get rid of the @$#%@$#^^&%&$# Bermuda we have now.
Explanation required?
Priceless, all of them. Thank You.
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