I don't know enough about the North Pole to conduct a poll. Who does? How interesting could it be up there where there are no places to shop and eat sushi? But Christmas--that's a different matter. Just for fun, answer the following questions.- Christmas Dinner--turkey, ham, prime rib, or something else?
- Tree--real or artificial?
- Lights--white or colored? Blinking or still?
- Are the Santa presents wrapped or just left under the tree?
- Do you like A Christmas Story? (People tend to be passionate about this, one way or the other.)
- Favorite carol?
- Favorite Christmas book?
- What's your view on re-gifting?
- Do you like fruitcake?
- Is there a treat you make every year?
- How old do you think Joseph was? (Yes. I'm still obsessed.)
I'll give you my answers tomorrow night.
1. Turkey
ReplyDelete2. Artificial (my sister is allergic to evergreens)
3. Colored lights
4. Wrapped ( I love to see people struggle..hehe)
5. Adore it. I got a BB gun one Christmas...ah fond memories.
6. The First Noel
7. A Christmas Carol
8. I don't do it.
9. I like home-made fruitcake, none of the store-bought stuff.
10. Sugar Cookies with decorations.
11. Twenty.
Christmas Dinner--turkey
ReplyDeleteTree-- prefer real but it's difficult for one person to wrangle a real tree so I have an artificial one
Lights--white and still
Santa presents -- unwrapped
Do you like A Christmas Story? Eh...
Favorite carol? Joy to the World
Favorite Christmas book? Don't really have a favorite
What's your view on re-gifting? Fine as long as you are careful to re-gift in a different circle of friends
Do you like fruitcake? Yes, if it's made well. My mama's fruitcake, which was soaked in wine, was delicious.
Is there a treat you make every year? pumpkin bread
How old do you think Joseph was? (Yes. I'm still obsessed.) I had not thought about it until your blog last week. He probably was a very young man. Maybe not 15 but certainly not the senior citizen most nativity scenes show him to be.
Marilyn
1. Turkey or ham, though have been known to do a theme, like Cajun.
ReplyDelete2. Artificial, because it's easier and pre-lit.
3. Still white, though I love colored blinking too.
4. Wrapped!
5. It's a major award! Ooooohhhhh, fuuuudddge. I TRIPLE dog dare you! -- IOW, YES!
6. White Christmas, Carol of the Bells
7. A Christmas Carol
8. I'm flexible about it, though it's not something I do at Christmas. I like to choose things for people that I think they would really like.
9. I like Italian Panettone and German Stollen.
10. Nope.
11. However old you tell me he was, Jean. :) I definitely think younger rather than older.
1. Christmas "dinner" is casual. We do sandwiches, chili, soup, chips and dips, and lots of snacks and sweets.
ReplyDelete2. Artificial. I have a palm tree. What grows in Jerusalem? Palm trees. It's pre-lit, in a pot, and very easy to decorate. After the holidays you simply remove the decorations and move the pot to a nice corner where it becomes regular decor. I'm all for making things less stressful.
3. They're white, but only because I couldn't find a pre-lit palm tree with the multi-colored ones. I much prefer the multi-color. And I don't want them blinking at me.
4. Santa presents: unwrapped. Gifts from others: wrapped. There's a protocol to this, you know. I think it's in the Geneva Convention.
5. A Christmas Story? Any Christmas story? A particular Christmas Story? I can see I'm in the "meh" group with this one.
6. Silent Night. Played with violins, it's haunting.
7. Don't have one.
8. Re-gifting has saved my butt several times. But only good stuff.
9. I loved my mother's fruitcake. I've never tasted any other like it. No alcohol involved, and it was sweet.
10. Shrimp ball. There would be an uprising if no shrimp ball appeared on the table.
11. I'm thinking Joseph was closer to 20. He was already established as a carpenter.
1. Something else.
ReplyDelete2. Artificial.
3. white lights on the main tree, white and colored on the Space Tree. NEVER blinking.
4. Wrapped, unless it's something unwrappable, like a bike, or Gerard Butler.
5. A Christmas Story is OK, but I prefer White Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street, the original
6. Depends on my mood. I have a bunch of Christmas CDs and I choose according to my mood. Dance or no dance? Fun or Man-I'm-exhausted?
7. I can't think of one that I can call a favorite.
8. I just can't.
9. If I did, the one we pass around the family wouldn't have reached the age of 24 years.
10. Gingerbread cookies, every year since 1976. Other treats come and go.
11. 22 and a half.
1.Chicken and Dressing plus ham
ReplyDelete2. Real or nothing
3. a)I have white but I love the multi-colued and use them on a tree when I have one.
b) Still, the blinking ones make me jumpy!
4. Santa just leaves them for me. I agree with Maven Linda that there are protcols for this sort of thing!
5. Yes but not passionately
6. Little Drummer Boy
7. Not sure on the book
8. I am for it but nothing tacky should be passed on.
9.No, but I do like fruit cake cookies.
10. Fried pies
11. I think he was a grown up but not an old man. I don't think a teenage boy would have been mature enough to do the things he did.
1. Dinner--turkey, but hubby insists on ham,
ReplyDelete2. Tree--artificial, we still use the same long-needled pine tree hubby proposed under. ;)
3. Lights--white and still for dramatic effect
4. Santa presents are wrapped, unless they are too big, then they get a glorious bow.
5. I do not like A Christmas Story? Sam, I am.
6. Favorite carol, tie between Holly & The Ivy and Canon D by Pachabel. Love all the old Renaissance music at this time of year.
7. Favorite Christmas book would be The Night Before Christmas
8. I do not like re-gifting, makes me feel guilty.
9. Nope, I cannot eat fruitcake, though hubby likes it.
10. Gingerbreak cookies with Royal Icing are the treat I must have every year.
11. Joseph was old enough to know to follow his heart, wise enough to believe in God's plan, gentle enough to ease Mary's burdens, strong enough to raise the son of God.
Thanks everyone for playing!
ReplyDelete1. Christmas Dinner--Depends on my mood. Lately, prime rib or beef tenderloin--though I grew up with ham and turkey.
2. Tree--real
Lights--white and still. Hate me a blinking light.
3. Santa presents NEVER wrapped.
4. Do you like A Christmas Story? Yes.
5. Favorite carol? Carol of the Bells
6. Favorite Christmas book? Polar Express
7. What's your view on re-gifting?I do it, but only if the gift is really nice, but not to my taste. I am very careful to make sure it's not in the same circle of people.
8. Do you like fruitcake? Yes, but only if it has lots of nuts and no citron.
9. Is there a treat you make every year? Peanut brittle and toffee.
10 How old do you think Joseph was? 15.
From Saint Joseph in Wikipedia as to age:
ReplyDeleteThe first to offer a solution was the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, written about 150 AD. The original gospels never refer to Joseph's age, but James presents him as an old man chosen by lot (i.e., by God) to watch over the Virgin.
And this continues:
ReplyDeleteThe apocryphal History of Joseph the Carpenter, written in the 5th century and framed as a biography of Joseph dictated by Jesus, describes how Joseph, aged 90 (the Protoevangelium had not given Joseph a specific age), a widower with four sons and two daughters, is given charge of the twelve year old Mary, who then lives in his household raising his youngest son James the Less (the supposed author of the Protoevengelium) until she is ready to be married at age 14½. Joseph's death at the age of 111, attended by angels and asserting the perpetual virginity of Mary, takes up approximately half the story.[39]
This is from Wikipedia so judge authenticity as you will, but this is what it says about modern thought:
ReplyDeleteUp to about the 17th century Joseph tends to be depicted as a man advanced in years, with grey hair, often balding, occasionally frail and with arthritic fingers and a sharp nose, a comparatively marginal figure alongside Mary and Jesus if not entirely in the background, passive other than when leading them on their flight to Egypt. Joseph is shown mostly with a beard, not only in keeping with Jewish custom, but also because – although the Gospel accounts do not give his age – later literature tends to present him as an old man at the time of his wedding to Mary. This depiction arose to allay concerns about both the celibacy of the newly wedded couple,[64] the mention of brothers and sisters of Jesus in the canonical Gospels,[65] and Joseph's other children spoken of in apocryphal literature – concerns discussed very frankly by Jean Gerson for example, who nonetheless favoured showing him as a younger man.[66] In recent centuries – in step with a growing interest in Joseph's role in Gospel exegesis – he himself has become a focal figure in representations of the Holy Family. He is now often portrayed as a younger or even youthful man (perhaps especially in Protestant depictions), whether going about his work as a carpenter, or participating actively in the daily life of Mary and Jesus as an equal and openly affectionate member.[67]
This is from: http://petragrail.tripod.com/tecton.html (Again, version vary on the Internet)
ReplyDeleteJoseph was not an old man by our standards, for in his day the average age at death for a man was 29. Anyone over 20 was "older" and already had a housefull of children. A man married at 13, had a son by 15, and trained him in his occupation. By 26, he could have been a grandfather.
The Bible never says Joseph was an elderly man, nor does it say he was previously married, nor does it say he already had children.
This perhaps lends a picture of his age from:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4
John Dominic Crossan puts tekton into a historical context more resembling an itinerant worker than an established artisan, emphasizing his marginality in a population in which a peasant who owns land could become quite prosperous. Other scholars have argued that tekton could equally mean a highly-skilled craftsman in wood or the more prestigious metal, perhaps running a workshop with several employees, and noted sources recording the shortage of skilled artisans at the time.[22] Geza Vermes has stated that the terms 'carpenter' and 'son of a carpenter' are used in the Jewish Talmud to signify a very learned man, and he suggests that a description of Joseph as 'naggar' (a carpenter) could indicate that he was considered wise and highly literate in the Torah.[23]
Very little information out there, Jean. But I'm forced to wonder how a man as accomplished as Joseph surely had been, could be a master craftsman and strict follower of Jewish law, while knowing said law intimately, without having apprenticed and/or experienced more years in his life before Jesus' birth.
ReplyDeleteBut anything is possible with God, right?