December 20, 2025 a thought for today Your friend lends and your enemy asks payment. Dutch Prover

Photos in my life yesterday

This upload challenge is titled “tradition”. This seems to be a typical gift to friends and neighbors. It is a welcome holiday offering.

The second upload it “something red”. This is my porch swing offering a handy
place for some of the snow to rest. 

The last upload here is “winter”. The park down the street from my home always looks nice after a newly fallen snow. 

Life toady. I “wasted” part of the morning doing research on some healthy diets for myself along with gaining knowledge about foods that I haven’t experienced before. So it wasn’t “wasted” after all just a detour from other projects needing attention. Heck that can be construed as fun some of the time as it was for me today. I glanced at the clock and realized it was almost time to go for my curb side grocery pickup. I wanted to leave a little early so I could drop off the newsletters that I finished yesterday and last night. 

At least it is warmer today than it was yesterday when the temperature was as low as 18 degrees. Today, right now, it is 46 degrees. There is talk that it may be near 60 degrees on Christmas day. 

My sister and I have been trying to find egg nog that is sugar free to no avail. I have a half gallon of Silk Almond milk in my grocery order today so I will be making some egg nog with a touch of Splenda in it 

My neighbor stopped by a little while ago and among our varied conversation we landed on AI. We both recognize that things are creeping in to our daily lives like searches on google, the smart watches that many people are wearing and “exciting” depictions of famous people on social media. It is my humble opinion that its use is a lot like the use of fire. Fire can destroy as well as comfort. Use of common sense using AI as in using fire.

The word today is passion. The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. Alfred Lord Tennyson.  He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason. Cicero.  Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. Denis Diderot. Judgement, not passion should prevail. Epicharmus.  Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself.  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted. Seneca.  Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. Napoleon Bonaparte.  The law is reason, free from passion. Aristotle.  Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.  As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion. Antisthenes.  If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. Benjamin Franklin. Indulge not thyself in the passion of anger; it is whetting a sword to wound thine own breast, or murder thy friend. Akhenaton.  Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts. James Russell Lowell.  Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless. Honore de Balzac.  Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further. Soren Kierkegaard.  Man is only great when he acts from passion. Benjamin Disraeli.  Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter. Thomas Hobbes. On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale. Alexander Pope.  There is only one passion, the passion for happiness. Denis Diderot. Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion. Pythagoras.  Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. Leonardo da Vinci.  Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. Alexander Hamilton.  He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  

Article summary. Jane Austen was a renowned English novelist. Now and then I use some of her quotes. Since this is the Christmas season and since this is the 250th anniversary of her birth I think this article is most appropriate for a good knowledge base. This is also an ineresting look at another Christmas in another time. The title is Jane Austen celebrated Christmas with dancing, dinner parties and dangerous games. Meg Kobza, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Newcastle University. At conversation.com. The article opened in mentioning a thing or two about a Georgian Christmas season, a game called Snapdragon and one snatching a raisin from brandy on fire. Apparently a gone by festive occurrence in Jane’s time. We have our own traditions for the holiday season sharing with family and friends. Jane’s fun and experiences appeared in much of her writings. As the article progressed it was mentioned about the time Jane met one of her first “romantic interests”. It was in 1795 that hey “crossed paths”. She told her sister they, she and her new Irish friend, spent some time dancing and sitting together “flirting, laughing, and gossiping” as he holiday season passed. She published six books that made her one of the “best-known authors”. The stories showed the “legacy” of her life. As I continued to read the article I found that the Christmas season began on “St. Nicholas Day on December 6" and ended on January 6, the “Twelfth Day.” During that time she enjoyed all the festivities of the season. Christmas day was a “quiet affair” spending the day at church with family. Twelfth Night was the “spotlight of the season”. That was the fun night fulled with “merriment”. I found in the story that some of those festivities came from the Romans. One event was based on a slice of cake, called the Twelfth Night cake that held a dried bean and a dried pea. The cake was cut into slices for the people participating in the fun. One would get the dried bean became the king for the evening, the dried pea the queen. The people came in costumes. Jane was dressed as “Miss Candour”, one of her book characters, one year. As that character she made “outrageous comments in loud whispers for all to hear!” After that were games flaming brandy. This twelfth day of  Christmas holiday celebration went on all night with the next day being a “bank holiday”. On January 7 all decorations were removed with the wreaths and garlands set on fire to “ward off bad luck in the new year”. The article ended by relating that we might miss the experience of this kind of Twelfth Night as “Georgians and Austen herself” celebrated the season to the fullest in “reverence and enjoyed the festive season to its fullest.” 

I am going to try to make a chili with pumpkin. It is a recipe I found that is suppose be safe from all of my health. 

Photos in my life today

My first upload is “my choice”. It is one from my series of “still life”, three red apples and a dish towel. 

The second upload is “festive colors”. It is an image of my Christmas tree that has a paint like filter added. 

The third upload for this day is “decoration”. This on is from the my
archives. It is one of the building in downtown Columbus.

The last one for today is “by candle light”. I have this vanilla scented candle on my red cloth against a dark background as part of our Christmas decor.

Joy

  

                                                                Christmas past