I spent saturday night in ICU. Started mondya morning being told I would be starting Chemo next week and ended Tuesday with the Oncologist telling me there, in fact, is no cancer in my blood – and the infectious disease specialist telling me I didn’t have Lymphoma, rather a very unique and rare form of… Mono.

So, we’re still waiting for the FINAL results. I spent Saturday night and Sunday in ICU. It’s been an emotional roller coaster. And We really still don’t have a 100% answer, but it looks more like a weird form of Mono at this point. I still feel miserable and have a handful of drugs to take. My spleen is twice it’s normal size and all of the incisions from the biopsy and other testing have made me very sore – so it’s difficult to get around.

I have my first follow up and should have final results from the biopsy sometime next week.

In the end, I am blessed to be able to spend the holiday with my family. I am blessed to have the family, friends and neighbors that I have. I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to all of our great neighbors here in Providence Village. I always knew we had it good here, but it’s times like these that the absolute beauty of true community shines through in all it’s glory. THANK YOU TO YOU ALL! You will never know how much your support has meant to us over the past couple of weeks and as we continue to sort through my health issues.

I promise to talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

I promise to make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

I promise to look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

I promise to think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

I promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

I promise to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

I promise to wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature I meet.

I promise to give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.

I promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

I promise to think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.

I promise to live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

- Christian D. Larson

Thank you to all of our neighbors – for tolerating my insanity and the mini traffic jams.

Thank you to all who stopped by to see the lights.

Thank you for all ofthe email and comments.

Thank you for believing in the spirit of Christmas!

See ya next year!

- The Vader Family

Just as my family was finishing up our annual Christmas dinner, our local CBS affiliate stopped by to chat about our display. You can view the interview here: http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=15080@ktvt.dayport.com

What a fantastic end to the most joyous Christmas I can remember!

We all stood outside in the cold to watch the light show and the CBS crew do their thing. Very cool!

Last night, however, the heart of my background show, my Light Flurries box, blew its motor I’ve asked around on a couple of the local enthusiats boards with the hope that someone happens to have a spare on lying around, but I don’t have my hopes up. So I’m pretty bummed that on of my favorite parts of the show has come to a halt. This is the machine that creates the affect of snow falling on our house.
I’ll probably just remove my pre and post shows which rely heavily on the Light Flurries box – and just run the full show for an hour earlier and shut it down an hour earlier to make up for the loss.

Vive le vent is the French version of Jingle Bells. They are sung to the same tune, but the translation given here for Vive le vent is the literal translation of the French Christmas carol, which is completely different than the English carol Jingle Bells.

The version used in our show is a modern rendition recorded by the French singer, Jacsynthe. Jacynthe Millette-Bilodeau (born September 13, 1979) is a Québécois pop singer who records as Jacynthe. She records material in English, French and Italian, and has had Top 40 hits on both the anglophone and francophone pop charts in Canada.

Jacynthe is best known amongst adults for starring, along with Anne-Marie Losique, in the Québécois version of the reality show The Simple Life, called La Vie Rurale. In 2006 she toured with the Cirque du Soleil in their very first arena tour, Delirium. She left the show in May. She appears on the show’s album, scheduled for a June 2006 release.

VIVE LE VENT

Vive le vent, vive le vent,
vive le vent d’hiver
qui s’en va sifflant, soufflant
dans les grands sapins verts.
Vive le temps, vive le temps,
vive le temps d’hiver
boules de neige et jour de l’an
et bonne année grand-mère.

Sur le long chemin
tout blanc de neige blanche
un vieux monsieur s’avance avec
sa canne dans la main
et tout là-haut le vent qui siffle
dans les branches puis souffle
la romance qu’il chantait petit enfant

Joyeux joyeux Noël aux mille
bougies qu’enchantent vers le ciel
les cloches de la nuit.
Vive le vent, vive le vent,
Vive le vent d’hiver qui rapporte aux vieux enfants un souvenir d’hier.

Et le vieux monsieur descend
vers le village
C’est l’heure où tout est sage
et l’ombre danse au coin du feu
Mais dans chaque maison
il flotte un air de fête partout
la table est prête et l’on entend
la même chanson

We are abudantly aware of our blessings – and cherish them with every passing moment. I think THIS is what people mean when they speak of ‘holiday magic’.

- Darren

I want to say thank you to all of the folks who have left such nice comments on the web site and sent encouraging emails. We’ve heard some many nice stories and just absolutely love hearing about how much everyone likes our efforts! Especially the kiddos! Thanks again!

A. Popular myth puts his birth on December 25^th in the year 1 C.E.

B. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth. The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.

C. The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman monastery. His calculation went as follows:

a. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (“the founding of the City” [Rome]). Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5^th year of Rome’s reign, etc.

b. Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius.

c. Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15^th year of Tiberius reign.

d. If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus’ 28^th year of reign).

e. Augustus took power in 727 AUC. Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC.

f. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.

D. Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and former president of the Catholic Biblical Association – writing in the Catholic Church’s official commentary on the New Testament[1], writes about the date of Jesus’ birth, “Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.”

E. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought Jesus was born on November 18. Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred on September 11, 3 BCE.

II. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?

A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25^th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).

C. In the 4^th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.

D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25^th, to be Jesus’ birthday.

E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.

F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.

G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]

H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.

III. The Origins of Christmas Customs

A. Christmas Trees
Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”.[7] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

B. Mistletoe
Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim.[8] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[9]

C. Christmas Presents
In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[10]

D. Santa Claus

a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6^th. He was only named a saint in the 19^th century.

b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.

c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children’s stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.

d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.

e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25^th instead of December 6^th.

f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.

g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.

h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.

i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.

IV. The Christmas Challenge