Here Comes Santa Claus

Kids all over the world are rubbing their hands together eagerly in anticipation of the jolly fat man coming into their homes via the chimney (even if they don't actually have a chimney) and leaving a bounty of wrapped gifts to be torn into before the sun actually breaks the horizon in the morning.

Sounds good, right? Any other time of the year, we'd be shooting first and asking questions later if someone tried to sneak into the house but as long as it's Christmas and the trespasser is dressed in red velvet with a full white beard, we hold off on the hail of bullets.

So where did the idea of Santa Claus come from?

Well, did you ever imagine the words "Santa" and "prostitute" in the same story? Hold onto your Santa caps then...

In the 4th century A.D., a Catholic priest named Nicholas lived in Myra (part of modern-day Turkey) and ministered to the Christians there during a huge economic downturn. It nearly broke his heart that one family's fortunes had gotten so low that the father couldn't afford dowries for his three daughters. Without dowries, no men would even think about marrying the girls and their only option to survive was for them to become prostitutes. Father Nicholas simply couldn't allow this to happen so he scraped together dowries for the three sisters, allowing them to make decent marriages. For this and other acts of extreme kindness, Father Nicholas later on became canonized as Saint Nicholas.

Over the centuries, Christianity spread over Europe and Christian beliefs sort of merged with the pagan beliefs of the areas. In Scandinavia, the people worshipped the Norse gods, led by the chief god Odin. Every year, in the winter Yule festival, little children would leave their shoes on the doorstep in the belief that Odin would fill them with small gifts. By the 13th century, Odin's penchant for gift giving got all wrapped up in St. Nicholas' story and people began to refer to him as Sinterklaas, "the good saint." To this day throughout Europe, many people give gifts on Sinterklaas Day (December 5) to celebrate the works of the good saint. (They also get gifts on Christmas Day too! I'm thinking that we Americans are gypping ourselves- 2 days of presents!?!)

By the 19th century, Sinterklaas' name changed with the language of each country. He is most often referred to as Santa Claus or some form of Father Christmas. I personally love the French version of the Santa Claus/Father Christmas story. Pere Noel (the French translation of Father Christmas) rides around on his beloved donkey Gui (French for Mistletoe) bringing presents to all the worthy children, those who have been good throughout the year. But Pere Noel and Gui aren't alone- with them rides Pere Fouettard who dresses in black leather and spanks all the children who have been bad throughout the year. Can't you just picture all the naughty French children hiding under their beds?

So as you snuggle down in your nice cozy bed tonight, ask yourself this question... are you going to be getting red velvet or black leather tonight? (Holy mistletoe, Batman, this post just took a completely different twist didn't it?!?)

Regardless, Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

Popcorn Drive Results

Wow, when you guys have the opportunity to do something to help the soldiers, you come through. I bow to you all!

I fully expected to get a few dozen boxes of microwave popcorn- the idea of a bonus tends to appeal to the folks who are worried about passing a test- but I never expected that so many people would respond to the call. Kudos to the Monday night class because nearly everybody in the class showed up with at least one box. A big pat on the back for Carter; he brought "A" box that had at least 40 bags of popcorn in it.

All in all, I collected over 100 boxes of popcorn. When I carried them to my friend who's spearheading the drive, Caitlin and I filled the trunk, backseat AND passenger seat of his Jeep. There was just barely enough room for him to squeeze in! I'm wondering where he's going to store it all before he can send it to the troops.

Folks, I hope you have a smile on your face for this. Our soldiers work tirelessly to maintain our safety and freedom- often without any sort of thanks. When they get all this popcorn, they'll know that we all care!

Attn: Friday Students- The Final Curve

THEY ARE OVER!!!!! Aren't you guys glad?!? Your final was my last one for the semester and hopefully yours too. Now we can all breathe a little easier and move on to more interesting things- like Christmas Break!

But just to tie up a few loose ends before we go-

You guys had a class average on the test of- 83 (BTW- this was the highest of all 3 of my classes so GO FRIDAY CLASS!!!)

The curve for this class was- 5 points.

And you can thank Dallas P. and Taylor D. for your points.

Hope you guys have a great break. See you next semester.

Attn: Monday Night Class- The Final Curve

Hi Monday Night folks! Please forgive me for not posting this info sooner. I figured that everybody who was really worried waited until after the test was over and I ran the Scantrons to find out your grade- then I got an email from somebody asking about the curve. For you guys,

The average score on the test was- 81.

The curve for the final exam was- 1 point. (Much to Orean's dismay!) You guys can thank Morgan U. for the curve on this one.

Have a safe and Merry Christmas and hope to see you all when we come back from Christmas break!

Attn: Columbia Class- The Final Curve

Happy frozen Tuesday Columbia folks,

For those of you who have been gnawing at your fingernails since yesterday afternoon (and you know exactly who I'm talking to...) Here is the info from your American History I final exam.

The class average for the test was: 78.

The curve for the test was: 7 points.

And you can thank the following person for your curve: Heather R.

Congrats folks, you have survived American History I. I hope you have a safe and Merry Christmas and hope to see you in January for American History II.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It can snow all it wants to, I just don't want us to get our usual 1/4 inch of the fluffy white stuff covering 2 inches of ice!

As of right now, Columbia State hasn't made any sort of announcement regarding tomorrow's classes. That's nothing unusual because they usually don't until closer to time for the day's classes to start unless we have some sort of blizzard.

Therefore- and I know you don't want to hear this anymore than I want to say it- final exams are still on. I sent out an email to both Monday classes' ChargerNet emails. If anything changes, I'll send out another one and post another message here just to let everybody know.

Regardless, study hard and don't forget your pencils and your popcorn!

Are you watching The Walking Dead?

If not, WHY NOT?!?!?!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, those of you that know me pretty well are just shrugging this off going "well, she is a conspiracy theorist" and believe me, I'm not calling BS on you or anything but my craziness aside, this is a great show! I've tried to watch a few AMC shows here and there but I just couldn't get into them. Breaking Bad and Mad Men just weren't my cup of tea and I really did try my best to get into Rubicon but it went way over my head. But when I saw the first trailers for The Walking Dead, I knew I'd be glued to the telly for it. The zombie apocalypse/ pandemic plague idea is one that has gotten a lot of screen time over the years but TWD really reminds me of the BBC show Survivors (which I loved too). Rather than being a show about defeating the zombies, it's much more about finding some sort of normalcy in a completely flipped out new world. And yes, since it comes on Sunday nights at 9:00, and I go to bed right after, I do spend most of the night wondering if the noises outside my bedroom are the zombies coming to get me. But hey, this show is so totally worth screwing up my sleep patters for the night.

The only thing that sucks about TWD is that AMC ordered a 'miniseason' for its first season, only 6 episodes long. Sunday night is the finale but if you haven't watched it yet, don't despair. AMC is running a marathon of episodes 1-5 on Sunday leading up to the finale so you can get a megadose of all the zombiefied goodness! Watch it and then you can come back here and we can discuss it in the comments.

FYI- conspiracy theorist that I am, it does have me making mental notes on what to do and what not to do in the face of a zombie apocalypse (Limber Up, the Double Tap). I have also added lock picking kit and crossbow with plenty of arrows to my Christmas list this year. It always pays to be prepared.