saw this on the daily what and thought it was really cute. It's a mash up of the 11 pixar movies to a few good songs

periodic table of sports

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. At first it just looks like they pasted a bunch of sports teams on a periodic table. But if you know the names of teams and cities they're in it's a whole lot of fun to look through.

25 days of christmas: day 24-how the grinch stole christmas

The christmas classic

25 days of christmas: day 23- ice skating

So ice skating isn't technically a Christmas thing. But it is associated with winter, especially outdoor skating. If you live in st. louis going to Steinberg rink is pretty much a necessity. A few friends and I are going tonight so maybe I'll put up a few pictures later.

Merry almost Christmas

25 days of christmas: day 22-linus' christmas monologue

An absolute Christmas classic right here. Apparently this is the last time a bible verse was able to be spoken on network tv.

Luke 2:8-14 (king james version)

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men

25 days of christmas: day 21-o come all ye faithful

I've been a fan of these guys for a while now. This is one of my favorite christmas songs

25 days of christmas: day 20-TSO

here's some Trans Siberian Orchestra. One of my friends is obsessed with them cause these guys are pretty much amazing

25 days of christmas: day 19-putting up our tree

Well we finally put up our christmas tree today. Reason #1 being that I've put up and decorated the tree since at least 8th grade, and now i'm finally home for break. #2 we like to wait until the semi-reject trees are left and are all 50% off. It actually turned out fairly well this year.

The strand of lights at the top of the tree decided to stop working so please ignore the gap in lights at the top.

cute little plane


Garfield is probably one of my top 3 favorite ornaments

25 days of christmas: day 18-dancing christmas lights

What do you get with someone who's innovative, tech savvy, and loves Christmas? This! Probably one of my favorite things about christmas lights are the creative people who make them dance to music.

25 days of christmas: day 17-the nativity story

The whole "reason for the season" right here. We picture the little, baby Jesus peacefully lying in the manger with his parents leaning over him. The shepherds and maji circled around a few feet away.

We all know that every little detail of this isn't true. So here's a few details that our nativity sets on the table top leave out.

1. Jesus was probably born in the fall, not the winter

2. There was no room at the inn because in the autumn the jews would travel to Jerusalem to observe God's Holy Days (this still goes on today)

3. Jesus was about 2 years old when the wise men saw him

4. Jesus wasn't necessarily born in a stable, the Bible only says he was laid in a manger (which if you ask me probably means he was born in a stable)

I know, a few of these are kind of a buzz kill. I found them on here and here. I left out some of the ones that seem like theories and not based on historical evidence....Sorry if this was kind of a downer it wasn't initially meant to be.

25 days of christmas: day 16-christmas vacation

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite movies of all time. This is by no means the best scene in the movie, but it was the only one who's code wasn't embedded. Still good nevertheless

25 days of christmas: day 15-santa names

This is pretty cool to see the different names of santa in all the different countries. All of them has their own unique story about him too.

COUNTRY	SANTA NAMES
United States of America, Canada	Santa Claus
Brazil	Papai Noel
China	Shengdan Laoren
Chile	Viejo Pascuero
Dutch	Sinter Klaas
England	Father Christmas
Europe	Saint Nicholas
Finland	Joulupukki
France	Pere Noel
Germany	Saint Nikolaus
Hawaii	Kanakaloka
Holland	De Kerstman
Hungary	Tel-apo/Mikulas/ Winter grandfather
India	Santa Claus, Baba
Italy	Babbo Natale
Japan	Hoteiosho
Lithuania	Kaledu Senelis
Morocco	Black Peter
Netherlands	Kerstman
Norway	Julenissen
Peru	Papa Noel
Poland	Swiety Mikolaj
Russia	Ded Moroz
Scandinavia	Julenisse
Spain	El Nino Jesus
Sweden	Tomten/Jultomten

25 days of christmas: day 14-coca cola polar bears

sorry I'm super behind on the 25 days of christmas thing. It's been a combination of not being home all day or internet not working.

We all remember the polar bear commercials for coca cola a few years ago. Those were awesome commercials. So here's one for the sake of nostalgia

25 days of christmas: day 13-calvin and hobbes christmas

we're all familiar with and love the Calvin and Hobbes comics. The snowman comic has become a particular favorite with fans.

eagle release

we're gonna take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to show you this. Yup, I was totally there.

25 days of christmas: day 12-christmas in disney

while I've never been to Disney world during the Christmas season, I've heard it's amazing. They completely deck out all the different parks. There's several giant 45-75 foot christmas trees in each of the parks and in a few of the more popular resorts such as the Grand Floridian and Animal Kingdom Resort. I'll probably do some more on Disney Christmas since it's such a big ordeal.

25 days of christmas: day 11-awesome santa

while this may not be technically christmas it's got a pretty awesome dude in a santa outfit

25 days of christmas: day 10-the plaza lights

a group of us went to kansas city for the mu v. ku game and that night we went to the plaza. The plaza is basically a few streets of restaurants and stores. It's really cool and pretty especially during the Christmas season. They line all of the roofs and buildings with really pretty lights. These pics don't do it any justice, but you can imagine being surrounded by these is pretty cool.

25 days of christmas: day 9-christmas lights

I resisted the urge to make another "history of..." thing and instead found an article that shows all the different kinds of modern christmas lights. I might do more with lights later on simply because I love them.

The Lights You Know and Love

Incandescent lights are the ones that started it all. Even though they're well over a hundred years old now, the technology largely remains the same. The shapes and sizes of the bulbs, on the other hand, have been in constant flux. Now we're left with three major types of incandescent Christmas light bulbs, as described by the excellent guide at JimOnLight.com:

The Mini/Fairy Light: This is the big kahuna. If you haven't seen one of these by now, then you've probably never seen Christmas lights. Traditionally, the set is wired in series, hence the age old problem where if one bulb goes out, the rest won't light. But it's not hard to find sets that are wired in parallel nowadays.

These guys also have a lo-fi twinkle method built in. That little red-tipped bulb that comes with each set is made in a way that as the filament heats up, it rises and breaks the circuit. That, of course, shuts of the rest of the lights. When it cools down, it falls again to complete the circuit, and the lights (wait for it...) come back on. Physics 101.

C7: Again, an incandescent light that comes in a different-sized glass housing. These are about the size of your thumb, and work in almost exactly the same way as a mini light.

C9: You get the picture by now. Same shape as the C7, but slightly bigger.

LED lights have been growing in popularity for the past few years. Regardless of what you think of their light output, there's no denying that they're much more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs, and give off less heat. And who knows, maybe someday they'll match the color temperature of good-ol' tungsten lighting. Until then, here's what you'll be looking at, again according to the guide at JimOnLight.com:

5mm: These are the LED equivalent of incandescent mini-lights. They're small LED bulbs in a plastic enclosure. Usually the "white" level is waaaay off from the "white" of incandescent lights.

G12 and G25: Just like with incandescent lights, you're going to find a whole lot of the same with LEDs, just in different shapes and sizes. These are globe shaped plastic enclosures, G12 is pictured.

C7: You've seen these before, except this time there's an LED inside.

You'll find a bunch of crazy light designs out there, but like Jim's excellent guide says, 99.9% of them are just plastic enclosures that are illuminated by these types of bulbs.

25 days of christmas: day 8-tilles park

one of my favorite things about christmas around st. louis is when Tilles Park puts up the annual lights. It's always really pretty and I plan on going at some point this year with some school friends.

Winter Wonderland at Tilles Park open until January 2 on Sunday-Friday from 5:30-9:30

25 days of christmas: day 7-30 rock christmas tree

we all know about the famous christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza. This year it's up from November 30th- January 1 and lit from 5:30am-11:30pm every day.

25 days of christmas: day 6-eggnog

$20 says I'm not the only one who's ever said "what's up with eggnog?" Well here's what's up. Yet again I got this from a web site:

The word itself does not have much appeal, the guttural sound and the thought of drinking egg doesn’t sound very appetizing to most. There are differing opinions as to the origin of the name for this famous drink. One version says that nog derives from an Old English word for strong beer, hence “noggin”. Another version attributes the name to Colonial America where colonists referred to thick drinks as “grog” and eggnog as “egg-and-grog”. Either way, we know it today as Eggnog.

Europe:

It is believed that the eggnog tradition began in Europe as an adaptation of the various milk and wine punches often served at social gatherings. In the 17th century, eggnog was used as a toast to one’s health and was consumed by the well-to-do of society as milk and eggs were scarce commodities in Europe.

The New World:

When the brew was brought to the “New World,” colonists added a new twist, rum. The rum Americans could get from the Caribbean was considerably less expensive than the other liquors shipped from England. And so, along with the readily available supply of milk and eggs in the colonies, the rum version quickly became a popular drink for people of all classes.

Variations:

As a rich, spicy and (oh yes) alcoholic drink, eggnog soon became a familiar item during the holiday season across the growing nation. Each region would adapt the drink to their personal tastes. Even George Washington devised his own version of the brew which only the most courageous would partake using rye whiskey, rum and sherry.

In the south, Southern taste replaced rum with bourbon. And when the brew reached Latin America even more adaptations were made; in Puerto Rico coconut juice or milk was added, in Mexico eggnog became a harder liqueur to be sipped with the addition of Mexican cinnamon and rum or grain alcohol, and in Peru it was made with the Peruvian pomace brandy called pisco.

Noggin' Now:

The basic recipe for eggnog has not changed over the years (eggs beaten with sugar, milk, cream and some kind of spirit) and remains a favorite for holiday parties. Whatever the variation of the popular holiday drink, it is sure to be a winner with most of your holiday guests. However, for those who wish to go “nogless,” there are other warm spirited drinks that are sure to be a hit as well and lift everyone’s holiday spirits.

25 days of christmas: day 5-christmas plants

I couldn't think of a more attractive title other than 'christmas plants' because the word 'foliage' is just kinda weird. So here's a list of the origins of mistletoe and holly, poinsettias, and the christmas tree. By the way I got this from a site, it isn't my own wording.

Mistletoe and Holly
Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant that is parasitic upon other trees and used it to decorate their homes. They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love, Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead, church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery.

Poinsettias
Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They were named after America's first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He brought the plants to America in 1828. The Mexicans in the eighteenth century thought the plants were symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the Poinsettia became associated with the Christmas season. The actual flower of the poinsettia is small and yellow. But surrounding the flower are large, bright red leaves, often mistaken for petals.

The Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree originated in Germany in the 16th century. It was common for the Germanic people to decorate fir trees, both inside and out, with roses, apples, and colored paper. It is believed that Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, was the first to light a Christmas tree with candles. While coming home one dark winter's night near Christmas, he was struck with the beauty of the starlight shining through the branches of a small fir tree outside his home. He duplicated the starlight by using candles attached to the branches of his indoor Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was not widely used in Britain until the 19th century. It was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans in the 1820's.

25 days of christmas: day 4-the magic tree

in columbia we have a thing called the magic tree. I'm pretty sure I already posted on it so if you don't know what it is you can probably find it if you type it into the search bar.

Some friends and I went last night and it was so pretty. Unfortunately they moved it so now it's on a smaller tree, but still awesome. Fletcher is the last name of the guy who puts up the lights, so even though I'm not related to him it still makes me somewhat proud.

Forgive me for the blurriness of all the pictures because at the moment I don't have a real camera so I've got to use my phone.

And for future reference the rest of the posts are probably going to be about christmas historically or christmas traditions of different cities not just my own christmas stuff.

25 days of christmas: day 3-12 days of christmas by straight no chaser

this hilarious rendition of the 12 days of christmas by 'straight no chaser.' They start out perfectly normal and then break off into multiple other songs some of which are deck the halls, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and dreidel dreidel. Worth a watch

25 days of christmas: day 2-the house

My favorite thing to do all year is put up the christmas lights. This year's lights were all LED. And given that they are all LED there's not that many because they are fairly expensive. So, it's kind of a sad display, but it took about a million years to put up. Next year I hope to add more colors and get more of the roof and second story. But, for now this is what it looks like. Plus, all LED saves a lot of energy so you don't have to unplug the lights when you use the treadmill (yes that's a true story)

25 days of christmas: day 1

as of yesterday I decided I wanted to do a 25 days of christmas thing. Yes, I know it's cliche but oh well. Being that it's December 4th I'm just going to post 4 things. This counts as the first. So happy december.

I don't know the official name of this picture is, but it describes college life perfectly