December 23, 2023 a thought for today, He that labours is tempted by one devil; he that is idle is tempted by a thousand. English Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “Christmas tree”. I have a few of the living room tree already uploaded this month so I decided to snap on of the ceramic trees we have in one of the other rooms for this upload image. 

One upload for the 22nd was “wrapping”. I have moved to using bags for most of the wrapping I am doing lately. There are a few cases where I need paper, ribbons and scotch tape. 

The next upload for yesterday was “Santa”. This is another of the small ornaments we use for decorating the house for this special holiday. This one is a jolly little fellow and I felt he fit in here quite nicely. 

Life today. This is a “lots of little things” on the gloomy, rainy day. It is the typical curbside grocery pick up day which Sweet Pea and I have already accomplished, even got it all put away already. We made a brunch stop at McDonalds. There was a new girl at the pay window today. A new one who admired Sweet Pea....as I paid for our food she said “you have a beautiful dog!” Sweet Pea sat there like a princess accepting the compliment regally. 

I worked on getting the bills paid for the month and finished loading the dish washer and pressed the start button. 

My fist upload for today is “gift”. This is one of the gifts a neighbor sent over. I am so glad they are still in the cookie making adventure for the holidays. I have let that part of the holiday slip away. We have some awesome family recipes but the energy has waned. My mom’s date nut roll-up cookie is delicious but there is some work to it.

Since all the “heavy stuff” of the last few weeks are done for the next few days and I am ready for family and celebrating the reason for the season. I have time today to work on my photos leisurely. I have also been spending some mental time thinking about updates I will want to make to the church web page when the end of 2023 year is over. 

The next upload today is “gifts wrapped”. So they are, a sample of a few of the gifts we have to give this year. The boxed one is a carry over from last year but still one that is needed in some cases. The others are the “wrapping” I am using this year. 

The word for today is rules. The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.  The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are, Marcus Aurelius. When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer, Edmund Burke. We must not only read the Scriptures, but we must make their rules of life our own, Hosea Ballou.  Imagination rules the world. Napoleon Bonaparte.   He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king. John Milton.  Necessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything. Thales.  Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind. Wilkie Collins.  I have made myself what I am. And I would that I could make the red people as great as the conceptions of my own mind, when I think of the Great Spirit that rules over us all. Tecumseh.  Rules and models destroy genius and art. William Hazlitt. 

The last upload for today is “candy cane”. For some reason candy canes have alluded me this season. All I have been able find to snap for uploads are decorations on neighbors’ lawns. I like the background and cozy feeling of these two befriended by the evergreen bush. 

This is a story of one man’s view and research to complete some thoughts of this time in history. The title is “Was King Herod the Great really so ‘great’? What history says about the bad guy of the Christmas story”. I am a little leery of writing about this one. My dad always lectured to us to stay clear of talking too much about politics, religion and peoples’ pay checks. It was written by a professor of religious studies. King Herod decreed that all children two and under just after Jesus was born were to be killed. He heard that the baby was being called the King of the Jews. Much of what there is to be learned about Herod has been found by the “Jewish historian Josephus”. More information was found by modern archaeologists who “excavated many sites associated with him, including the possible location of Herod’s tomb.” Some of the history is that Herod was the “regional king of Judea, the area of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and under Roman “influence”. The area was mostly known as a “Jewish region”. So he was “literally “king of the Jews.”” The article mentioned that he may not have actually been Jewish at birth. His father likely converted to Judaism, his mother was an Arabian princess. The article also mentioned that “it is likely that many of the native Jews in Judea would have been skeptical of their king’s claims to be truly Jewish” since he came from Idumea. He was a “skillful builder” and saw that much extravagant projects were completed on the Mediterranean Coast and in the area of the Dead Sea.  The article went on to claim that perhaps that his most notable project was the “rebuilding and expansion of the Jewish temple complex in Jerusalem.” The temple he built was “more grandiose structure than Solomon’s original temple, built about a thousand years earlier”. He aided in the “preservation of Judaism”. He made it possible for Jews to be exempt from serving in the military. As well as being excellent as a builder he was a “brilliant” economic strategist, eventually having “ventures” in international trade including the sale of balsam wood and copper. It is said that he contributed to the Olympic Games and “averted” a regional famine. He had the persona of a tyrant because in his fear of rebellion he executed threats to his “reign”, even his own wife and three sons. He also overtaxed “excessively”.  The article went on to relate that in Matthew’s Gospels King Herod is prominently mentioned in the period of Jesus’ birth. According to this author “Matthew’s version is considered the most Jewish of the Gospels”. Again according to this article biblical scholars compared Jesus with Moses as Herod threatened Jesus as the pharaoh threatened the Hebrew children.

I think it is going to be a “TV dinner” or hot dogs for dinner tonight. 

Joy

             an abandoned soda in an abandoned building