HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO......

Happy Purr-day, mew mew, Happy Purr-day, mew mew, Happy Purr-day, Tia Meowy, Happy Purr-day, mew mew!

Thanks bunches for remembering :-)! I almost *never* remember birthdays so I'm sure I have forgotten you :-). I decided this afternoon that I was looking too old -- most likely not because of how I look but because I have been having a rough few months with unexpected lower back pain. I went to get my nails done and while there decided I would dye my hair again. It's been about 4 years since I did it so I have gotten a fair amount of gray. I used to go to the beauty supply and get a color called black cherry -- brown with heavy blue-red highlights. Now that I am considerably more "mature" that color is too dark. I decided on a nice medium brown with auburn highlights. NOT!!!!!!! The gray RALLY liked that auburn part and I now have sort of dark carroty hair all around my face -- LOLOL! I do believe you could drive a car by the glow from my new hair color :-)! I should have DH take a photo of it so everyone can get a good laugh too. I'll live with it for a bit and wash my hair every day or two -- NOT fun with hair that is down below my tush because it won't ever get dry. Hopefully, the color will fade a bit, if not, I'll just get some regular old light ash brown and color my hair again. AHHHH the joys of creative endeavours -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

DITTO!!!

Pat

Tia Mary wrote: I now have sort of dark carroty hair all around my face --

It's almost midnight here and I have just now unplugged the artificial tree that sits in the front window. Along with that, I have unplugged the garland around the window, doors, etc. and the electric "candles" in all of the upstairs windows. I know most of the neighbors wonder *why* I leave all of the lights on until 06 January! Christmas isn't over until midnight of 06 January and I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I possible can!! As for my hair -- LOL! It's only bad right around my face where it was most gray. I'm positive that I wouldn't even raise anyone's eyebrow

-- let alone make them stare -- if I was in New Orleans. Of course, here in backwater northern GA it's another story LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our decorations don't go up until 24 December. Some folk, especially when we lived in England, think we are rather weird, especially when you try to explain that you do it because it is Advent until 24 Dec.

Since my college was closed from about 12/15 to 1/2, we always had 12th Night parties.

I loved them. Very mellow, lots of fun.

Cheryl

Bruce wrote:

Oh, I'm sure there are a bunch of us here who know about Epiphany ;-). For me, the outside of the house is decorated and the lights are turned on at 6:00 PM Thanksgiving night regardless of how far away Christmas actually is. Why does Advent keep you from decorating earlier since it's not like Lent with all of the various restrictions. When I was a kid, our church decorations (the crèche, shepherds, decorative pennants, etc.) always went up the first day of Advent. Each week a few more things were added until a few days before Christmas when Mary & Joseph were added. Then before midnight mass on Christmas morning, Baby Jesus was added and the wise men set up on the other side of the church from the crèche'. Each day the wise men were moved a bit closer until they were set right in front of Baby Jesus on the Feast of the Epiphany. My mom was always the one in charge of setting up the crèche -- my uncle was the one who built it and we kept it stored at our house -- so I always got to go help. I was even allowed to help move the Wise Men closer to the crèche every few days. I remember my mom and I going out to all the tree lots a week or so before Christmas and we would get a bunch of small, ugly Charley Brown looking trees. We would schlepp these down to the church and set them up all around the crèche'. There were so many of them that they didn't look ugly all crammed together AND we either got them free or for almost nothing at all :-)! Obviously, I DO treasure my Christmas memories :-)))! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

In some cultures Advent is more like Lent than not, with fasting, reflection, and preparation. In Poland, the traditional Christmas Eve meal is meatless as a sign of preparation and expectation. The celebration part begins at midnight.

Elizabeth

Here in Brooklyn with our large Russian population we have a lot of people celebrating Christmas on Jan. 6 (some people call it Old Christmas or Little Christmas.)

Alison

HMMM, interesting. Remember I am Irish on both sides of the family so everything is a reason to celebrate AND kvetch :-). Growing up in LaLa Land, I was surrounded by people from many different cultures -- even in my immediate family I had one aunt who was born & raised in Poland and Uncles who were born and raised in Sicily, Portugal, Scotland and Ireland. I don't remember any of them -- family or acquaintances, etc. -- treating Advent as anything other than a joyous time of preparation for the birth of Baby Jesus. It could be that, if still in the "old country", they would have treated the season in a different, more reflective manner. Living in the SoCal, Los Angeles area *does* tend to encourage a freer, shall we say more open type of holiday preparation :-). Even in church, Advent was a joyously anticipatory time of preparation and celebration, not one of any sort of sacrifice -- at least not that I can remember. I'll have to ask my friend who is Hungarian (he & his older bro were born there but came here when he was three) how his family traditionally dealt with Advent & Christmas. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

But the traditional advent songs, like O Come, O Come Emmanuel, tend to be much more solemn than Christmas Carols, and there are some churches, even in this country, that stick to advent songs for advent.

Elizabeth

One of my favourites.

My church (Lutheran) does that. No carols until Christmas Eve. Though IIRC this year we did "jump" the season by singing "Go Tell it on the Mountain" at morning services on the 24th (which were technically Advent IV).

One of my favorite discoveries this year was this set of seasonal (advent, solstice, Christmas, 12 days) British trad. recordings:

I do put up my decorations as early as possible and I leave them up as loooooong as possible (which is until DH starts complaining...it was early this year so I took them down on the 6th). I'd have a Christmas tree up all year long, if I could. I *love* Christmas trees and ornaments!

Joan

Leave the tree up year round, and decorate it for the different holidays.

Belatedly, what Joan and Darla said

Ellice

Not laughing at you, but sharing the pain. Virtually the only place I'm grey is in my part. So, keeping my hair the red I prefer has become quite the adventure. The gray hair takes the coloring differently. And I've had the day-glo orangey stripe look - contrasting with the nice color and highlights of the rest. The correction is that the colorist puts a green toner on the originally gray now tooooo bright section only. And then it blends pretty well. You could ask about it. If you're gray more all over, it may be worth it to ask them about using a toner to counter the over-red part. I like my hair kind of bright, but not striped. Having had problems with keeping the color, etc - when I switched salons this past summer I went to one with certified Master Colorists in the shop, the owner, and one of the others. So, now, I'm just not too happy with the cut.