Joy and Peace to All

December 25, 2020December 25, 2020 Lynette M Burrows

No matter what holidays you celebrate or don’t, I’m wishing joy and peace to all of you. To say it’s been a hard year for everyone is a little glib. For some, it has been beyond difficult. My heart aches for all your losses, big and small. We’ve finally come to the end of the year. You may wish to never look back at the year 2020. There were so many negative thoughts and feelings and events you may recall nothing else. Memories It’s easy to look back and see all the negative. The challenge is to to find the moments of joy and peace. Maybe it was the birth of a child or a quiet moment in nature, where and what is different for each of us. The problem is that we recall bad memories, traumas, the negative stuff far more easily than the good. These highly emotional events trigger the parts of our brains that record memories. What’s the message there? That we need to guard and record our good memories, moments of joy and peace. For some people, that’s taking lots of photographs. Others record their lives in journals. Still others keep a memory jar. Thank You […]

Mixing Holiday Traditions With Science

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020 Lynette M Burrows

Putting up the Christmas tree is one of my beloved holiday traditions. For many years, I went to a tree farm a couple of weeks before Christmas. We’d cut down a tree, bring it home, and decorate it. I wasn’t mixing holiday traditions with science back then. But the science of Christmas trees is fascinating. The Traditions The Romans decorated their temples with fir trees for the festival of Saturnalia. Christians used fir trees as a sign of everlasting life with God. Many people credit the Germans with bringing the Christmas tree into their homes. Records show that Martin Luther, a 16th century preacher, was one of the first to bring a Christmas tree into his house and put lights on it. Read more about the first Christmas trees. Oh Christmas Tree When shopping for a Christmas tree, we want the right shape, the right height, and color. We want the tree to hold on to its needles as long as possible. And we want the tree to look fresh for weeks. These are the traits Christmas tree growers want to foster in their trees. Fraser and noble firs are the most popular species for Christmas trees. Christmas trees are […]

Do You Know Rudolph Like I Know Rudolph?

December 21, 2020December 20, 2020 Lynette M Burrows

Welcome to the second installment of holiday fun and an interview with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Do You Know Rudolph Like I Know Rudolph? Rudolf’s Birth In 1939, the Montgomery Ward Company asked their ad man to create a story for a Christmas promotion. The ad man, Robert L. May, wrote catalog copy for the company, but he had a way with limericks and parodies May’s life situation depressed him. He was heavily in debt trying to pay for his dying wife’s medical care. And his failure to be the novelist he dreamed of haunted him. But May believed in his story. He had a friend illustrate his manuscript. Together, he and his friend convinced his boss to publish the story. Rudolph’s Q&A 1. Who is your role model? Santa Claus. He’s always jolly and kind. Unlike certain reindeer. Not that I hold a grudge. 2. Who knows you the best? Santa Claus. He knows when I am sleeping. And he knows when I’m awake. He knows when I am bad or good. 3. What would your friends say about you? They used to laugh and call me names. Now they say I’ll go down in history. 4. What is […]