Tree sitting

My eyes slowly opened as I tried to collect myself. I was in my Brother’s (Nate) room with my siblings Nate, Zach, and Rachel. Being the oldest, Rachel organized us all together to start making breakfast. I started to realize that it was the best day of the year, Christmas, 2009. We all helped make coffee and toast to later give to our parents. While we waited for the water to heat up we practice our Christmas Carols we would sing to our parents. Once we finished making breakfast we gathered…

Iconic rock band U2 and Apple have been accused of violating Russian anti-gay laws as a result of the free digital download of their 2014 album Songs of Innocence. The album, which was freely shared across iTunes upon its release, is currently under investigation on the request of Alexander Starovoitov, a member of Russia’s lower level of Parliament. The lawmaker claims that the album’s release breaks Russian law in that it spreads gay propaganda and makes it available to minors. Starovoitov…

Ah, the holidays; the most wonderful time of the year. A great time to be with family and friends. We all are lucky to be with our families, and be blessed and thankful for them, but there are some who are not lucky enough to have anything. That’s when the toy drives come in! For years, toy drives have been providing toys and games for children who possess less than others. There are many great toy drives that people participate in. One of the most popular is Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots is a…

The film I am basing my essay on is called Elf. The beginning of the movie is set thirty years ago in the 1980’s with the middle and end of the movie in the twenty first century. The beginning of the movie starts out with Santa Claus accidentally bringing a baby back with him to the North Pole. An elf names the baby Buddy and volunteers to raise him as his own. In the North Pole they have different norms and beliefs than anywhere else. They believe that reindeer fly, Santa is real and they can…

Christmas in the middle ages and the UK is on the same day the 25th of December. In the middle ages they had a lot more holidays and Christmas lasted more than 2-3 days. The 12 days of Christmas is from Christmas which originated from the middle ages. In the 12 days of medieval Christmas their was serval holidays, St Stephen's day was on the 26th of December, holy innocents on the 28th of December and Ephaniny and the feast of St Nicholas was on the 6 of December which was linked to gift giving…

There are a lot of mundane tasks or activities that we participate in on a regular basis that use hidden rules that we do not even acknowledge. Theodore Caplow wrote an article that examined the cultural norms surrounding Christmas and the conformity surrounding them, this helped inspire me to investigate the concealed principles that are present during the most simple of tasks. I went to the Drayer Physical Therapy Institute in Hummelstown and observed the behaviour taking place in the waiting…

Last year I went to go see the Singing Christmas Trees at First Baptist Church of Orlando. Seeing this production is one of my favorite things to do around Christmas, because it is the perfect mixture of singing, dancing, and acting to get me into the holiday spirit. The show had a strong opening number as the orchestra and chorus started playing and singing ‘Joy to the World’ at strongly at forte with many harmonies. Throughout the rest of the show the orchestra played countless other…

father. It's about our not losing sight of what is important in life. Not letting the busy work of life blind us to what's important. Sound familiar? A lot of us come into the Advent season unwillingly because all we can see is the busy work. The Tree, gifts, shopping coking baking. Oh yeah, and if we can we'll sprinkle a little Jesus in…

Each tree is dressed generously in silver and gold like the Burl Ives song from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer commands because I solemnly and sincerely agree and trust an animated snowman with the voice of an angel. They also each have ornaments chosen carefully and lovingly each year of my life- representing to me not material things- but hours of time spent with my family. All of this comes to an end at home, next to our personal tree, as we each anticipate dad's reading…

Since childhood, I waited all year for December to arrive, because I was free from school, and family would come over to my house. My aunts and mom would cook together and prepared the grandest dinner of the year. One bite of that Christmas meal filled me with joy. December 24th of 2010 was the last Christmas Eve dinner that I celebrated with my entire family in the Dominican Republic before I moved permanently to the United States. I remember it like it was today. The sweet and sour aroma from…