December 2017 Newsleer Volume 2, Issue 8 THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!! Christmas is an annual fesval commemorang the birth of Jesus Christ,observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebraon among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Chrisan liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or the Navity Fast and iniates the season of Christmasde, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelſth Night; in some tradions, Christmasde includes an Octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's naons, is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Chrisan people, and is an integral part of the holiday season, while some Chrisan groups reject the celebraon. Rather than December 25th, in several countries celebrang Christmas Eve on December 24th is the main focus, with giſt-giving and sharing a tradional meal with the family. The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Chrisan, Chrisan, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include giſt-giving, compleng an Advent calendar or Advent wreath, Christmas music and caroling, lighng a Chrisngle, an exchange of Christmas cards, church services, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decoraons, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, navity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addion, several closely related and oſten interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christ kind, are associated with bringing giſts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of tradions and lore. Because giſt-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas fesval involve heightened economic acvity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.
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December 2017 Newsletter · hristmas music and caroling, lighting a hristingle, an exchange of hristmas cards, church services, a special meal, and the display of various hristmas
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December 2017 Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 8
THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!! Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ,observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an Octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people, and is an integral part of the holiday season, while some Christian groups reject the celebration. Rather than December 25th, in several countries celebrating Christmas Eve on December 24th is the main focus, with gift-giving and sharing a traditional meal with the family.
The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday
include gift-giving, completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath, Christmas music and caroling, lighting a Christingle, an exchange of Christmas cards, church services, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christ kind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.
The holiday season is upon us! This time of year brings cookies and hot cocoa, twinkling decorations, yuletide cheer, countless hours of holiday music, and often, a white Christmas. Irving Berlin’s song, White Christmas, is the best selling single ever, and has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The most popular version was recorded by Bing Crosby and made famous in the musicals Holiday Inn and White Christmas. Many others have recorded their own versions, including Ernest Tubb, Elvis Presley, The Drifters, Johnny Mathis, The Beach Boys, Barbara Streisand, John Denver, and many others. Songwriters dream of having top acts record their songs, but Berlin was less than thrilled when he heard Elvis’s version of White Christmas. In fact, his staff called radio stations and asked that they not play the record!
It’s a bit ironic that Irving Berlin, a Jewish man, would write the most popular Christmas song of all time. When it was written, Berlin did not expect it to be such a hit, nor did he even celebrate Christmas. On the contrary, Christmas was a sad day for him. While many were celebrating with family and loved ones, Berlin would visit the grave of his son who died on December 25, 1928, at three weeks of age.
There are a few accounts of how this song came to be. Some say Berlin wrote the simple words on a napkin while drinking coffee in a Los Angeles hotel. Others say that he hurriedly dictated it to his secretary. Nonetheless, Berlin did not imagine it would be his most successful work! The song was released in the winter of 1941, just 18 days before the Pearl Harbor attack. By the following winter, the United States was involved in WWII and young American troops found themselves away from their families during the holidays. Armed Forces radio played “White Christmas” over and over to remind them of home. It reached number 1 on the Billboard charts in 1942, 1945, and 1946 and won Berlin an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Happy holidays and may all your Christmases be white!
Written by Brett Collins, Director of Community Life, Music Therapist MT-BC
Charles B 1N
Roberta S 1N
Marlin R 2S
Gladys H 2S
Robert C 2S
Frankie T 2S
Antoinette N 1N
Robert C 3N
Sports Update!
MN Vikings: On November 12th the MN Vikings beat the Washington Red Skins 38-30. Teddy Bridgewater suited up for the Vikings 441 days after his last game during the 2016 pre-season! He wasn't listed as the starter, but Bridgewater didn’t mind. What was most important to him is that he was in the locker room with his teammates.
The MN Vikings keep rolling! Behind a dominant performance from the offensive line, the MN Vikings defeated the Los Angeles Rams 24-7 on Sunday, November 19th.
On Thursday, November 23rd (Thanksgiving), the MN Viking beat the Detroit Lions 30-23 at Ford Field!!! They are now 9-2!
MN Timberwolves: On November 5th the MN Timberwolves beat the Charlotte Hornets t 112-94, for its fifth straight victory.
Major League Baseball: The Astros won the World Series!
COUNTDOWN TO SUPERBOWL 52!!!! Super Bowl 52, also known as Super Bowl LII, is scheduled for Sunday, February 4th, 2018, and will be played in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium! The game will be the first Super Bowl in Minnesota since Super Bowl XXVI, when the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills, 37-24, on January 26th, 1992, at the Metrodome. Some MN residents are renting out their homes for patrons to attend the game.
Emily Carr was born on December 13th, 1871. She was the eighth of nine children, and because it was the year BC joined the confederation, she was the first of her family to be born Canadian. She was fiercely proud of that.
Carr's father encouraged her artistic inclinations, but it was only in 1891, after her parents' deaths, that Carr pursued her art seriously. She studied art in London and San Francisco. Upon graduating, she moved to Vancouver to teach a Ladies Art Club. She was only there for a short time when students started to boycott her classes, due to her rude behavior of smoking and cursing. Carr then decided to dedicate her life to her own artwork. She began to travel in Europe and across Canada and Northern America, sketching and painting the woods and Native communities she saw.
Carr did not gain much recognition in the art world till later in life. Her first big break was when she was 57 when Eric Brown, the Director of Canada’s National Museum, asked her to send some of her paintings of
Native communities to be part of an exhibition on West Coast Aboriginal art. After that, recognition of her work grew steadily, and her work was exhibited in London, Paris, Washington DC, and Amsterdam, as well as major Canadian cities. Carr held her first solo show in eastern Canada in 1935 at the Women's Art Association of Canada Gallery in Toronto.
It was at the exhibition on West Coast aboriginal art at the National Gallery in 1927 that Carr first met members of the Group of Seven, at that time Canada's most recognized modern painters. Lawren Harris of the Group became a particularly important support: "You are one of us," he told Carr, welcoming her into the ranks of Canada's leading modernists. The encounter ended the artistic isolation of Carr's previous 15 years, leading to one of her most prolific periods and the creation of many of her most notable works.
Carr was an artist who succeeded against the odds, living in an artistically unadventurous society, and
working mostly in seclusion away from major art centers, thus making her "a darling of the women's
movement.” She created thousands of beautiful paintings of woods, trees, rivers, and Native culture that
still bring joy to people around the world today. To end this brief description of Emily Carr’s life, I would
like to leave you with a quote of hers!“ I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can
explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows.” As we go
into December, join us Thursday morning at 10:30 for expressive arts where we will follow Carr’s words
and let the art grow.
Written by Chloe Tirebuck, Community Life Assistant
THE GREAT RACOON HUNT
Daniel Boone would have been proud of my hunting abilities three quarters of a century
ago. My hunting ground was in the wrinkled old hills of Eastern Kentucky. My parents once
told me that I inherited my good hunting abilities and marksmanship from my pioneer
ancestors.
However, some of my adventures as a nimrod were less than legendary. The year was
1947, and I was 14, already a seasoned hillbilly, more at home in the woods and briar
patches around the small town of Flatwoods, Kentucky, than in the classroom at Russell
High School. Herbert (Herb) Blevens, our closest neighbor, lived on Copperhead Road
about two miles away. He was the owner of a pair of legendary Blue-tick coon hounds,
noted for their ability to track and tree the wiley ring-tailed raccoon, no matter where it
might be roaming.
Herb was 16 years old and had a driver's license, so we had transportation. We loaded
those two dogs in the back of Herb's ancient Dodge pickup truck, and after checking the gas
level with a homemade dipstick, and with four unreliable tires, we headed off down river to
Lewis County. Our destination was a great tract of timber-land that was, according to local
gossip, a sure haven for ring-tailed raccoon.
Me and Herb never had a doubt. Success was certain. About twenty minutes into the hills,
with darkness coming on rapidly, we lit our coal oil lantern and followed the dogs across a
low ridge and down into a wooded hollow. Great oak trees and shagbark hickories stood
tall in the woodland, having shaded out much of the under brush of redbud, dogwood,
sumac, and briar thickets.
We didn't have to wait long before we heard the excited baying of the hounds, up along the
darkening hollow, to know we were in raccoon country. In the flickering light of the old
lantern, we stumbled over fallen logs, waded an unexpected creek, and followed the dogs
as fast as the terrain and uncertain light would allow. It wasn't easy.
The chase finally reached a climax. The hounds had chased their quarry up a big oak tree
and were letting the whole world know about it. Their excited baying echoed up the
rugged little valley and bounced off the hills.
Continue on to the next page ……………………………………………...
THE GREAT RACOON HUNT (Continued)
We were prepared, of course. We had an axe, with a sharp double blade which we were
familiar with. As the dogs continued baying, Herb and I began chopping down that tree.
We made the initial notch in the low side, then switched to the opposite side to make the
final cut. Chips flew in all directions. We were not novices in the use of an axe. Herb and I
took turns chopping as the main notch deepened, and the chips formed a growing ring
around our feet.
Then it began; we moved back away from the fall. The dogs rushed around in increased
excitement. Intently, we watched for any movement from among the still trembling
branches. Somewhere in there is our reward for a slow drive of over 20 miles, a half-hour
stumbling walk over uncertain terrain, and at least 45 minutes chopping down that tree.
Suddenly, both hounds took off into the darkness, bawling excitedly. Then it came to an
end. The sounds of a mild struggle were proof enough that the dogs had caught our prey.
We rushed to the scene as fast as our light and the rugged terrain would allow. The
hounds, their long tongues hanging out like dripping banners, sat contemplating their
victory, the climax of our hunt in the “wilderness” of the Lewis County hills.
There, in the leaf litter lay a half-grown opossum, pretending, of course, to be as dead as a
doornail.
This definitely was not the ring-tailed raccoon that we had expected! This was not an old
fur-bearer that would have made Davy Crockett envious! We called off the dogs and
picked up the little half-grown opossum and laid it on the fallen log, knowing that it would
soon recover from its faked demise, a self defense trait that this little marsupial 's family
had learned in the evolutionary days of some far off millennia.
Slowly, we stumbled back through the dark forest to the little country road, where the
pickup truck was waiting. The ride back home was its own reward.
-Owen
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, without warning and without a declaration of war, killing 2,403 American non-combatants, and injuring 1,178 others. The attack sank two U.S. Navy battleships and damaged five others. It also damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one mine layer. Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged. Canada declared war on Japan within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first Western nation to do so. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II on the side of the Allies. In a speech to Congress President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the bombing of Pearl Harbor "a date which will live in infamy.” On August 23, 1994, the United States Congress, designated December 7 of each year as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. On Pearl Harbor Day, the American flag should be flown at half-staff, until sunset, to honor those who died as a result of the attack on U.S. Military and Naval forces in Hawaii.
Let’s get into the holiday spirit with a healthy spin on a classic treat! We all indulge during the holiday season; but, by making some small modifications to traditional recipes, we can make them a bit healthier. A great example of this is to substitute whole wheat flour for white flour. Unlike white flour, whole wheat flour has all components of the raw wheat, including the bran and the germ. This is important to note because these parts have more fiber, which can help with better blood sugar control and help with bowel regularity. Having more fiber in your diet can also help to lower cholesterol and it will help to make you feel fuller! There are many benefits to having an adequate amount of fiber in your diet, and it can taste just as good as white flour when you bake with it! Check out this sugar cookie recipe below and feel free to try it out this holiday season or share with a friend or family member! Remember, December 4th is National Cookie Day!
Written by Andrew Pfaff, Registered Dietitian
Whole Wheat Sugar Cookie
Yield: 25- 30, round 3 inch diameter cookies
Serving Size: 1 cookie
Ingredients
1½ cups whole-wheat flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup cold butter (1 stick)
⅓ cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
4 tsp heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, fitted with an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes. While the mixer is going add the egg, cream, and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
4. With the mixer still going on low, slowly add the flour mixture until well mixed. Turn off the mixer and squeeze the dough together into a ball, using your hands.
5. Using a rolling pin roll the dough out onto a floured surface until it's about ⅛ inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut desired shapes and place them onto an ungreased baking sheet. Photo courtesy of: Eatfunfoods.com