Holiday Countdown Day 21

[listener15]

DAY TWENTY-ONE

Movie
"A Charlie Brown Chirstmas" is today's movie pick. Seeing the poor tree the Charlie Brown picks out has a nice message to it.... and you can't go wrong with Snoopy and the gang.

Book
Today's book,"Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, is a favourite of mine. It is a wonderful story. Like so many other popular classic stories, make sure you get the full version of this. If you need to pull out the dictionary or explain some things to the little ones, use it as a learning time on all levels. Don't remember this story? You can read it for free "Gift of the Magi."

Song
I wish I could take credit for finding this, but I can't. I follow Jennie Breeden (who draws the webcomic The Devil's Panties which is great, you should go read it) on twitter (@jenniebreeden ) and she had linked this. I love it.

Click to view

And my gal told me to include this from Xena (I had forgotten about it heh).

Click to view

Craft and Recipe
Now I didn't have a chance to make these cookies. It's on my list to try (I've got the off brand Oreos for them) so if you make them, will you please drop me a line and tell me " Mini Oreo Cheesecakes turned out. They really do look yummy.

I have to say Homemade Victorian Christmas Crackers are fun. Buy them or make them, they are great to pop before opening gifts. Many of the ones my family would get would have a paper hat inside that all of us would wear while we opened gifts and swapped the little toy between us. This is one custom I would love to see come back for the holidays (or New Years, we would sometimes do this at New Years instead).

Fanfiction
Winter Solstice is today. Solstice has many parts to it, but the most commonly known one is that this is the shortest day and longest night of the year. From here on out the days will get longer and the nights shorter until Summer Solstice when it's the longest day and shortest night of the year. This day moves around a little so next Winter Solstice is on December 22nd. To celebrate Winter Solstice I have chosen to post three wonderful fics from the Xenaverse since the holiday fics there are Solstice fics. The pairing is, of course, Xena and Gabrielle.

The first story is "The Solstice Gift" by T. Novan.

Second story is "A Solstice Benefit" by Kamouraskan.

And last, but not least is "Runes" by baermer.

Art/Photos
Since there was an amazing lunar eclipse last night (the first time it's been on the Winter Solstice since 1638) how about some pictures of lunar eclipse's from past eclipse's.

But first, an explanation: