I would like to wish everyone visiting a very Merry Christmas.

Today we get together with family and friends and celebrate the day peace, love and joy….As usual I will try to cook for 8 people….Baked Ham, Sweet potatoes, Green beans, Mac and cheese, corn and blackberry cobbler for dessert.

The Jolly Fat Man has made his appearance and I hope everyone was good and got their heart’s desire in return.

The goodies are under the tree and the presents have been opened….or should I say gifts have been opened?

That brings up a question….are presents and gifts the same thing but different?

It’s that time again when we’re busy buying, wrapping, and giving them. Sometimes we call them “gifts,” sometimes “presents.” Is there a difference?

The words come to us from different language families. Gift comes from the old Germanic root for “to give.” It referred to an act of giving, and then, to the thing being given. In Old English it meant “the dowry given to a bride’s parents.” Present comes from the French for “to present.” A present is the thing being presented or bestowed. Both words were in use for the idea of something undergoing a transfer of possession without expectation of payment from the 13th century onward.

The words gift and present are well-matched synonyms that mean essentially the same thing, but even well-matched synonyms have their own connotations and distinctive patterns of use. Gift applies to a wider range of situations. Gifts can be talents: You can have the gift of gab, or a musical gift. Gifts can be intangibles: There is the gift of understanding or the gift of a quiet day. We generally don’t use present to describe things like that. Presents are more concrete or a bit more, well, present. If your whole family gave donations to your college fund for your birthday would you say “I got a lot of presents”? It doesn’t exactly sound wrong, but since you never hold these donations in your hand, gifts seems to fit better.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89961/whats-difference-between-gift-and-present

Now all those goodies left by the jolly fat man in the red suit….

Some people refer to Santa as St. Nick….but I do not understand why…..St. Nick is far from the Jolly Fat Man we know and love.

It is hard to imagine the cheery, plump version of Santa Claus emerged from Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Bishop of Myra who, as a nursing infant, fasted on holy days and whose bones were stolen after his death.

Instead of a “right jolly old elf,” St. Nicholas is the patron saint of everything from brewers to pawnbrokers to murderers. Here are eight often terrifying legends associated with the saint that seem more like a script from Dexter or Game of Thrones.

St. Nicholas, best known as the patron saint of children, is credited with a myriad of miracles that validate this claim. The earliest attributed miracle is that he somehow miraculously saved a baby during his bishop consecration ceremony at the cathedral.

According to the story, the baby’s mother absentmindedly left her child in the bathing tub, which was warming over the fire. After hearing the church bells ring out, the mother rushed out without a second thought for her tiny infant—she didn’t remember her baby until she returned home and saw the smoke-filled room. But instead of finding a charred or drowned baby, she peered over to find her little one contentedly smiling; all the credit for the kid’s survival went to the new Bishop Nicholas.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/st-nicholas-legends

That is my gift to my readers on this day….knowledge.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and enjoy time with family and friends….eat, drink and be safe.

Once again Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo