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Besides my goofy rescue greyhound, I’ll be solo this Christmas Eve. All is well. Had some solid family time with my kids last night, and will be with family tomorrow. But, for now, I’m enjoying a salted caramel latte, basking in the glow of the Christmas tree lights and about to plug George Bailey and company into the old Blu-ray player. Anyone else spending this Christmas Eve alone?

“O Holy Night” (Luke 2:1-20) It’s Christmas Eve! A night to celebrate. A holy night. For on Christmas Eve we start our annual celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we hear again the familiar Christmas Gospel. We sing the Christmas carols. We light the candles. This is a night to gather here in church with our family and to celebrate as a church family. It is a holy night indeed. And so our theme this evening: “O Holy Night.” But imagine for a moment that instead of coming here, you went out to a place where...

NORAD Santa Tracker Christmas Eve 2022 Santa is currently packing his sleigh at the North Pole and departs for his spectacular trip across the Heavens in 3 hours. Merry Christmas FReepers.

Four MS-13 Gang members have been sentenced for the murder of a teenage boy in Lynn, Massachusetts. Illegal aliens Jonathan Tercero Yanes and Henri Salvador Gutierrez, both from El Salvador, were sentenced this week with their fellow MS-13 Gang members Erick Lopez Flores and Djavier Duggins for murdering a teenage boy. On July 30, 2018, the gang members lured the boy into a Lynn playground where they pretended to be friends with him. In a wooded area in the park, the gang members surrounded the boy and stabbed him to death with knives. They then left the boy’s body in...

Missouri police arrested a woman accused of killing her boyfriend on Christmas Eve with a sword after the couple allegedly took meth earlier in the day. The Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to a 911 call just after 11:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve for a report of suspicious activity at a home, according to police. They found a deceased man, identified as 34-year-old Harrison Stephen Foster, in the basement of the home with multiple stab wounds. The 911 call allegedly came from 32-year-old Brittany Wilson, who said she stabbed her boyfriend with a sword, according to KFVS. A sword was...

“Good News of a Great Joy” (Luke 2:1-14) For most of us, tonight or tomorrow everyone will be opening their Christmas presents. You’ll know which one is yours, because it will have your name on it and you’ll know where to find it: under the Christmas tree. Now suppose I got a Christmas present for you, but I didn’t tell you about it. I didn’t tell you that I had gotten a gift for you, and I didn’t tell you where you could find it. Well, it could be the greatest Christmas present in the world, but if you don’t...

NORAD Santa Tracker Christmas Eve 2021

"Once in Royal David's city..." As the pure, crystalline voice of one boy soprano rings out from King's College in Cambridge, England singing the traditional opening carol of The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, for millions listening live on the radio worldwide, Christmas has truly begun. The Festival grew out of a need to bind up the wounds of World War I and has continued every year from 1918 unstopped by war, unrest or even a plandemic. They say that during World War II, listeners to the Festival could hear the tar paper flapping in the wind as the...

“Christmas in Three Acts” (Luke 2:1-20) The Gospel reading that we hear every year on Christmas Eve, Luke 2, verses 1-20--this account naturally falls into three sections, three parts, corresponding to the three paragraphs you find in your bulletin. In a way, it’s like a play that has three acts. Only this play is entirely factual; nothing fictional about it. It really happened this way. And when I say it has three “acts,” I not only mean that the story presents itself in three scenes, but I also mean that these are acts of God. In other words, God is...

President Trump on Friday signed an order giving federal workers a paid day off work on Christmas Eve.The news was a welcome surprise for workers who expected at most a half day.Trump’s order says, “All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, December 24, 2020, the day before Christmas Day.”Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton only gave half days when Christmas fell on a Friday, as it does this year.Obama allowed a half day in 2015 and 2009, GovExec reported. Clinton also allowed a half day in...

Anyone else feeling this way right now?

“Christmas Carols Come Alive!” (Luke 2:1-20) Christmas carols are, obviously, very popular at this time of year. You hear them all over the radio these days--although that will probably stop after tomorrow. These secular radio stations start playing Christmas music back around November 1, and they stop right when the church begins the twelve days of the real Christmas season. But these stations wouldn’t be playing Christmas music unless lots of people liked to tune in and listen. The joy and warmth of the holiday season comes through when Christmas carols are played. What’s even greater, though, is when Christmas...

As reported in Table IV of the Daily Treasury Statement, the U.S. Treasury collected approximately $21.672 billion in taxes on Christmas Eve, the first business day of the partial federal “shutdown” that began at midnight last Friday. Those Christmas Eve tax collections brought total federal tax revenues for fiscal 2019, which began on Oct. 1, to approximately $666.482 billion. On Friday, Dec. 21, the last day before the partial government shutdown, the Treasury collected approximately $10.876 billion in tax revenues, according to the Treasury statement for that day. That brought total tax collections for fiscal 2019 to approximately $644.811 billion—at...

Well, this seems to have become an annual event. Alone on Christmas Eve, reaching out to my fellow FReepers. Myself, I have my daughter's hermit crab for company. And some great classical Christmas music. And, a little later, George Bailey and friends via BluRay. Anyone else spending this evening solo?

“What Child Is This?” (Luke 2:1-20) When a child is born, there are questions that people typically ask. Parents wonder, “Is he healthy?” “How much does he weigh?” Grandparents ask, “What did you name her?” “Who does she look like?” Nurses and doctors closely examine the child and want to know, “Is he alert?” “Are her lungs clear?” We expect those kinds of questions. But there are other questions we never expect to hear at the birth of a child. No one would ever think to ask, “Who will handle his funeral arrangements someday?” Or, “What cemetery do you think...

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that gives federal employees the day off on Christmas Eve.“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Monday, December 24, 2018, the day before Christmas Day,” the order says. Certain offices may need to be open, however, to carry out responsibilities related to "national security, defense, or other public need," according to the order. “The heads of executive departments and agencies may determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report...

It's Christmas eve and children around the world are anxiously waiting for the arrival of Santa Claus and his reindeer. President Trump and First Lady Melania, who are spending their Christmas at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, are also excited about his visit and made phones calls to children Sunday afternoon to track his progress through the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD].  “What would you like more than anything?” President Trump asked a child named Casper from Virginia. “Building blocks, that’s what I’ve always liked too. I always loved building blocks. Well I predict Santa will bring you building blocks, so many...

“From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” (Luke 2:1-20) For our Christmas Eve homily tonight, I thought I’d let Luther lead the way. This is the 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, after all, and Martin Luther wrote and preached much on the wonder and the mystery of Christ’s birth. It was a favorite theme of his. So tonight we’ll use Luther’s great Christmas hymn, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come,” as the basis for our meditation. You’ll find it as Hymn 358 in your Lutheran Service Book. Luther wrote the text of this hymn in 1534, it was...

WPIX Yule Log: 1970 The WPIX Yule Log from 1970. WPIX is again airing the Yule Log on Christmas Eve and Christmas. This is the original filmed at Gracie Mansion.

Hey everyone. In what has become a Christmas Eve tradition, of sorts, I would like to wish all of those Freepers who, like myself, have for whatever reason found themselves alone this Christmas Eve. I hope this thread can, as in previous years, serve as a gathering place for the solo folks who may otherwise have little or no contact with others on this celebrated evening. You are not alone, really. God bless us, God bless us everyone.