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If you're one of the many families that has a Christmas Eve eating tradition please give us your best. Personally my wifes family had one when we got married....Oyster stew and rice with raisins, it was vile! Thankfully I got her off that and for 20 years we've had Super Jumbo Atlantic wild caught Shrimp and Jumbo Stone Crab claws MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM gooooooood. Please post what you'll be having

“Home for the Holidays” (Luke 2:1-20)“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.” So goes the familiar Christmas song. And it is good to be home, with family, at Christmas time. Renewed relations, good food, smiles on all the faces. There’s a fire in the fireplace, and you’re sitting in the living room, opening presents by the Christmas tree. Perry Como is singing in the background. Como, cocoa, cookies, and kids--a Christmas right out of Norman Rockwell. Very nice. But tonight I want to tell you about something even better than that. What it really means to be home...

The Talmud, with its share of rabbinic repudiations against Jesus, was never a big fan of Christmas. Call it the Grinch. Indeed, the rabbis looked at it as a day of mourning—perhaps due to the suffering that Jews encountered in Jesus' name throughout history. And Christmas Eve—named "Nittel Nacht" by Jewish scholars in the 17th century—took on a life of its own. The Jewish community has long had a tense relationship with Christmas. You wouldn't know it by the two main customs observed by many 21st-century Jews on Dec. 25: eating Chinese food and being the first to see the...

“December 24th: Spurgeon’s Evening Devotional” “‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ –Isaiah 40:5“We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be converted to Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats; when Romanism shall be exploded, and the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never again to cast its baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed. Some despair of this. They look upon the world as...

Just wondering if anyone else out there is spending the evening alone. Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sipping a cappuccino and taking in "A Christmas Story" in the old man cave. I'll be with family tomorrow, but as of tonight, it's my faithful Boxer and me. And Ralphie.

From Pieter Friedrich’s Christmas Eve 2003 entry, at the now-retired ‘Deux Ego’ weblog: 12/24/2003: “December 24th: Spurgeon’s Evening Devotional”“‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ –Isaiah 40:5------------------ “We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be converted to Christ; when... =====> Read the Christmas Eve evening devotional, from Charles Spurgeon...

“The Era of Big Government Is Just Beginning” (Isaiah 9:2-7)“The era of big government is over.” So declared President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union address in January of 1996. Of course, in the fifteen years since then, our big government has gotten even bigger. The size and scope of the federal government, its power, its spending, its intrusion into our lives--way beyond the limits set for it by the Constitution--big government is bigger than ever. “The era of big government is over”? Really? I must have missed it. As you may have guessed, and as anybody who...

The year 1968 was one of the mst discouraging in modern US history. The Vietnam War dragged on. Despite major civil rights bills, many people feared the country was turning "increasingly seperate and unequal." The nation grieved over the assassinations of Martin Luther King JR. and Robert Kennedy. Riots filled the streets.

While most of us on Christmas Eve were enjoying time with our families, buying last minute Christmas gifts or going to church, our federal government was busy trying to wrap up three shenanigans (Think: "The Grinch" before his conversion to generosity.) just in time for the big day. Hoping that no one was noticing, our government gave us these three lumps of coal...

Arkansas police continue to search for two suspects in the shooting death of a Salvation Army major on Christmas Eve. Salvation Army Major Philip Wise was killed outside the organization’s community center in North Little Rock, Arkansas as his three young children looked on. Wise had worked for the Salvation Army for 16 years and had been at the Little Rock location for 3 years. "He was so important to that community," said North Little Rock Police Department spokesman Terry Kuykendahl told FoxNews.com. "This has been a tremendous blow to (them)." Thanks to private citizens' donations, police are offering a...

LITTLE ROCK — Salvation Army Maj. Phillip Wise had Christmas plans. All he had to do was drop off the Christmas Eve donations at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Little Rock, pick up his wife, Cindy, who also is a Salvation Army major and was in the building waiting on him, and head home, to West Virginia, for the holidays. His three young children — 4, 6 and 8 — were with him. Then the unthinkable happened. Wise was robbed at gunpoint and as his children watched. He was then shot and bled to death in the parking lot...

Salvation Army major shot dead in front of 3 children By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette A Salvation Army major was fatally shot in front of his three children Thursday afternoon as he walked into the the organization's community center in North Little Rock, authorities said. Around 4 p.m., two black men dressed in black approached Philip Wise, 40, of Maumelle outside the community center at 1505 W. 18th St., Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper said. Wise’ children — ages 4, 6, and 8 — were walking with him when the men came up to them, police said. His wife, Cindy, also...

On Christmas Day, a Major with the Salvation Army taking his three children into the organization's community center in North Little Rock, was held up and shot to death (in what appears to be a botched robbery attempt). The Major and his children are white and the two perpetrators were black. Given what we know about how long it takes for racial wounds to heal, what's to say that these three young children (four, six, and eight) who witnessed the murder of their father become personally hostile to every black person they see, and who could really blame them?

‘Work is not done,’ widow says Wife of Salvation Army pastor speaks of prayer for his killer EVIN DEMIREL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Leading a Sunday service in the building where her husband was shot and killed in a Christmas Eve robbery attempt, Salvation Army Major Cindy Wise said her mission to minister to the people in North Little Rock’s Baring Cross neighborhood has not changed. “I believe I have peace today because I know the work is not done here yet,” Wise told nearly 50 people on Sunday. Standing before the congregation in her navy blue uniform, she said she will...

Sana’a – A US-born radical cleric is alive and well following reports he may have been killed in a Yemeni airstrike against suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts, friends and relatives said Friday. The government said it targeted a meeting of high-level Al-Qaeda operatives in Thursday’s airstrike in the remote Shabwa region. It claimed at least 30 militants were killed, possibly including Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been linked to the shooter in last month’s attack at the Fort Hood military base in the US. In addition to Al-Awlaki, the top leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (in Saudi Arabia...

Bless this night, oh Lord, we pray, Bless our families we love so dear, Bless our friends far and near— Lord, give peace in every way.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - A man has been arrested in the beating and mugging of an elderly man outside a church on Christmas Eve. Prince George's County Police arrested 28-year-old Shanon Washington of Capitol Heights on New Year's Day. Washington is charged with attempted murder, assault and robbery in the attack on 69-year-old Wayne Williams in the parking lot of the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church.

COVINA, Calif. – Law enforcement officials in Southern California say the gunman who killed nine people in a Christmas Eve bloodbath at his ex-in-laws' Covina home intended to flee to Canada but was severely burned before he killed himself. Police said Friday that after the shooting, 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo used a homemade device to spray racing fuel around the home and that the vapor was ignited by a pilot light or candle. He suffered third-degree burns on both arms when it exploded. Authorities say Pardo's Santa suit actually melted onto his body before he fled. After Pardo shot himself...

http://www.longwarjournal.org/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?tag=Philippines&blog_id=7 # BLOG ENTRY - QUOTE: http://www.longwarjournal.org/today-in/2008/12/the_moro_islamic_liberation_fr_1.php Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed nine people during attacks on villagers in the provinces of Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat on Christmas eve, and continued raids on Christmas day. MILF refused to change its negotiating position or representatives, but demanded a cabinet-level official head the peace panel. Find related articles: Philippines Posted by Bill Roggio on December 25, 2008 10:33 PM | Permalink

COVINA, Calif. (AP) - Stinging from an acrimonious divorce, a man plotting revenge against his ex-wife dressed up like Santa, went to his former in-laws' Christmas Eve party and slaughtered at least six people before killing himself hours later. Three people were listed as missing after Bruce Pardo's rampage - his ex-wife and her parents - and it was feared their remains were among the ashes of the home, which Pardo set ablaze using a bizarre homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid.

WATERFORD, Wis. - Some people get surprise birthday parties. Ilda Ruth Southey gets surprise weddings. Twice in her life Southey was surprised with a wedding ceremony on Christmas Eve, both times to Francis Southey. Her future husband planned their original wedding for Christmas Eve 1942 while he was stationed in Sherman, Texas, awaiting orders to ship off to Europe during World War II. "I didn't know I was getting married, I just went to spend Christmas with him and I got down there, he had the wedding all arranged," said Ruth Southey, 85, who lives at the Waterford Senior Living...

Full moon near Mars on December 23 Earth & Sky Radio Series with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar. Sunday, December 23, 2007 For us in the U.S., the full moon is tonight. And if you look outside you’ll see this full moon near a blazing reddish light in our sky. It’s the planet Mars. Flying through space at 18 miles per second, Earth is about to go between the sun and Mars. Earth will pass between Mars and the sun tomorrow. So the distance between us and Mars is now about at its least for...

Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and the moon will be shining full — a development that might make Santa Claus rethink his need for Rudolph's red nose. That idea, from Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer, made us wonder if retooling a certain reindeer song is the best way to explain it to the kids: Mars is a red-tinged planet With a very shiny glow And if you look to see it You will find the moon in tow. The red planet will shine brighter because it will be directly opposite the sun, reflecting the most...

1) 50 Cent was hired to rap the sermon and give the service “street cred.” 2) When a recent visitor asked about advent services, a confused volunteer gave her directions to the nearest pharmacy. 3) Thanks to a new title sponsor, the service was renamed “The Starbucks Christmas Eve Extravaganza at Springfield Community Church” 4) Hannah Montana offered to sing in the service but was told she is “too over the hill.” 5) The sign language translator was sacked and replaced by someone who instant messages the sermon text to the PDAs of the hearing impaired. 6) The entire Christmas...

Even though I wasn't born until 1970 I still like to listen this.. You can view the video here: Apollo 8

As he did in 2001, President Bush is giving most federal workers Christmas Eve off with pay so they may have a four-day holiday weekend. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. Yes, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Carter did the same thing when Christmas Eve fell on Monday, but they did it because federal workers at the time were less handsomely paid. That age, however, is a distant memory. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average federal salary is 48 percent higher than the private-sector average. When the value of fringe benefits (pension, health and life...

Executive Order: Closing of Executive Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government on Monday, December 24, 2007 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. All executive branch departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Monday, December 24, 2007, the day before Christmas Day, except as provided in section 2 below. Sec. 2. The heads of executive branch departments and agencies may determine that certain offices and installations of their...

Jf'nK: "Well, we're not going to resolve this today..." John Bolton: "You got that right..."

The chief financial officer of Google Inc... Tuesday said overall growth is slowing ... The company will now have to "find other ways" to boost revenue... The stock was down 11 percent, or more than $42...

NORAD Tracks Santa for 50th Christmas Eve COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Radars, satellites, cameras and jet fighters that are normally dedicated to detecting any threats against the United States and Canada instead were tracking the Christmas Eve travels of Santa Claus. In the 50th anniversary of the tradition, soldiers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said by about 10 a.m. EST, Santa had been spotted near Fiji, Japan, traveling about 100 times faster than the 185-mph Bullet Train. By 11 a.m., NORAD said Santa was in the Himalayas. Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TRACKING_SANTA?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

While trying to find a nativity image for my last post before Christmas, I did an search for "baby jesus" on Google. This is the result. Notice that the top search result is for a sex toy that mocks Jesus. Other results on this search results page have more link traffic. A quick review of page's code shows no HTML meta information that should give it a favorable ranking. The page itself has a raw relevance ranking (search word divided by total words) of less than five percent. The only conclusion I can draw is that this page position ranking...

Thousands Mark Christmas Eve in Bethlehem By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago Thousands of tourists and pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations Saturday, bringing a long-missing sense of holiday cheer to Jesus' historic birthplace. The festivities capped the most peaceful year since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000. But Israel's imposing separation barrier at the entrance to town dampened the Christmas spirit and provided a stark reminder of the unresolved conflict. The gray concrete wall, which Israel erected to keep attackers out of its cities, divides Bethlehem and blocks access to neighboring...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 2005 – President Bush today expressed pride in the nation's servicemembers and their families in his weekly radio address. "During the holiday season and throughout the year, we think with pride of the men and women of our armed forces, who are keeping our nation safe and defending freedom around the world," the president said. "In Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, they are protecting our liberty by spreading liberty to others, and all Americans are grateful to our troops for their courage and commitment." Bush also noted the sacrifices of military families. "Staying behind when a family member...

For Immediate ReleaseDecember 24, 2005 President's Radio Address      Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. On this Christmas Eve, Laura and I send our best wishes to families across America as you gather in your homes to celebrate the holiday. Christmas is a time of joy and peace, and we hope the holiday season brings all of you happy reunions with families and friends, and time to rest and reflect as you look forward to a new year. At Christmas, we give thanks for the gift of the birth of Christ, and for the blessings that surround us every day of...

Call them "Desperate Husbands" -- men who wait until the last minute to go Christmas shopping. Men who wear procrastination as a badge of honor. Girlie men shop online or visit the mall in November, wrap their presents and stash them in the closet. Real men put off shopping until Dec. 24. Because men don't shop. They buy. They are goal-oriented. And what they end up buying is jewelry. Diamond jewelry, to be exact. Square-shaped or pear-shaped, from Harry Winston to Wal-Mart, from Tiffany's to Target, the most dangerous place to be on Christmas Eve is between a desperate husband...

On Christmas Eve, December 24, thousands of Christians will gather at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to mark the occasion. Though the town gains prominence anew each Christmas season, the place of Bethlehem in Jewish history is often little remembered. The Church of the Nativity itself was built in the early Byzantine period (fourth century CE) by Queen Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, and commemorates the birth of Jesus. But in Jewish history, the town itself has significance. When the Patriarch Jacob, his wives and family, returned to the Land of Israel after serving Laben, a tragedy occurred...

VVAW, FBI files and John Kerry, What I have found 1. “On September 30, 1971, Robert Malone, Chief of Police, University of Nevada, advised Kerry’s speech at the University was sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, and that he was paid $1,200.00, including expenses for his appearance.” Kerry is paid for VVAW speeches, pg 25 2. VVAW pickets restaurant because owner refuses to serve long haired, barefoot and dirty veterans in his place of business. It is also noted that the organization encourages the use of narcotics. VVAW pickets restaurant, pg 28-29 3. VVAW distributes literature...

There are many similarities between the fictional Manchurian Candidate, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, who returns to America after the Korean War with a Medal of Honor, and John F Kerry. In the original 1962 movie-THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, not the recent politically correct version of the movie, the communists in the Korean War capture an American infantry platoon and subject them to intense brainwashing techniques. One of the patrol members, Sergeant Shaw, played by Harvey, is a carefully programmed sleeper agent, brainwashed to go back to America to kill the future President of the United States....

MIDI - GREEN BERET John had served in Vietnam...he sent letters home to mom What was real is hard to say...from SwiftVets, help is on the way Scratches get a Purple Heart...his report was a work of art What had been real is hard to say...from the SwiftVets, help is on the way Where was he on Christmas Eve...what he says, we can't believe What was real is hard to say...from SwiftVets, help is on the way Vietnam's his centerpiece...it looks like we've all been fleeced 'Cause what was real is hard to say...from the SwiftVets, help is on...

MIDI - THIS MAGIC MOMENT Life-changing moment...seared in my memory And every last detail...is so clear to me We're facing gunfire...oh, what a Christmas eve It was in Cambodia...that is hard to believe Nixon sent us there...he said we should go with care But he said we could not squeal...the whole thing was so surreal Life-changing moment...seared in my memory Wait, am I mistaken? Was it in Jan-u-air-air-air-air-eee Life-changing moment...seared in my memory I killed thirteen hundred...oh, yes, really We're facing gunfire...oh, what a Christmas eve It was in Cambodia...that is hard to believe Nixon sent us there...he said...

Man accused of beating at Wal-Mart posts bail December 28, 2003 BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter Advertisement A Broadview man said Saturday he "was trying to protect my kids'' during an incident in which he was charged for allegedly assaulting two people on Christmas Eve at Wal-Mart. Lennell Greer made his comments after posting 10 percent of a $10,000 bond set Saturday at Cook County Circuit Court in Maywood. During the hearing, prosecutors alleged Greer and a 15-year-old boy assaulted a man and woman with a baseball bat after a dispute over a place in line at the Forest Park...

PARIS (Reuters) - A pair of thieves who seized a van loaded with pricey designer goods on Wednesday took a two-hour detour so they could drive the owner home for his Christmas Eve dinner, before fleeing with the loot. Posing as police, the two men tricked the van driver into pulling over at a motorway intersection on the edge of Paris by chasing him in a car fitted with a flashing blue light, a siren and a "police" sign, local media reported on Friday. Despite being armed with guns and wearing balaclavas, the thieves showed some seasonal goodwill when they...

<p>LOS ANGELES — Air France resumed service between Paris and Los Angeles on Friday after grounding six flights over the Christmas holidays, an action taken because of a terror threat that may have involved crashing an airplane in Las Vegas.</p>

BOSTON -- As millions of Catholics prepare for the traditional midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the Boston Archdiocese is making an unusual plea to parishioners. NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that church leaders are asking anyone with cold or flu symptoms to take certain precautions and avoid some rituals. The announcement comes days after two elderly men on Cape Cod died of flu complications. But public health officials warn against overreactions saying the cases are not unusual considering the ages of the victims, 89 and 90. Parishioners attending Christmas Mass are urged not to shake hands as a sign of...

NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa - radar, satellites, SantaCams and jet fighter aircraft. It all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across Canada's North and Alaska. NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole on Christmas Eve. The moment our radar tells us that Santa has lifted off, we begin to use the same satellites that we use in providing warning of possible missile launches aimed at North America. These satellites are located in...

<p>A diminished crowd of a few thousand people gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Wednesday for Christmas Eve festivities that have been overshadowed by three years of violence in this West Bank town.</p> <p>Palestinians and a smattering of tourists -- most visitors have stayed away due to the Israeli-Palestinian fighting -- watched as the convoy of Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, arrived in Bethlehem.</p>