Tag: Christmas

Trans-Siberian Orchestra “The Lost Christmas Eve”

Republished from Dec 21, 2013.

Trans Siberian Orchestra – The Lost Christmas Eve

Because We Need A Little Christmas

Too much bad news, so here are some of the best Christmas Light Shows brought to you by some ambitious folks with huge electric bills and lots of time on their hands. With a h/t to Suzie Madrak who posted the the Star Wars light show at Crooks and Liars that led me to the others. And in case you can afford the electric bill and have the ambition and too much time on your hands, here is the link the video, How to Make Christmas Lights Flash to Music.

Post your favorite holiday music. Merry Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus and Merry Christmas, too all.

Best of Star Wars Music Christmas Lights Show 2014 – Featured on Great Christmas Light Fight!

Amazing and Hiliarious Best Christmas Light Show 2014 – Can Can (Straight No Chaser)

Carol of the Bells – Best Christmas Light Show! WATCH END! Sarajevo – Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

What’s Cooking: Sugarplum Bread

Republished from 12/11/2011 from the What’s Cooking Archives at The Stars Hollow Gazette

In Autumn, the appearance in grocery stores of stacks of candied fruit and mountains of nuts in all their wonderful variety is a sure sign of the approach of the holidays. As the days grow short and the nights grow cool preparations for a joyous time of baking begins.

My daughter is the bread baker but Sugarplum Bread is the one I enjoy making, too. This sweet bread studded with candied fruit is not as heavy as fruit cake. It is topped with a white icing glaze and decorated with red and green cherries to look like clusters of berries. It is a treat for breakfast or in the afternoon with tea. I make small ones baked in large muffin tins, decorated and wrapped in colored plastic wrap tied with ribbon as gifts for guests.

The following recipe is a rich dough flavored with nutmeg, candied fruit and peel, and raisins

Candied fruit would have melted in the summer heat and its sweetness would attract ants but it keeps well in the freezer. After the holidays, when the price is reduced for clearance, if you have space in your freezer buy a supply. It assures that you’ll have candied fruit on hand in the months when it can’t be found in the market.

“Christmas Eve And Other Stories”

Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve And Other Stories

Old City Bar

In an old city bar

That’s never too far

From the places that gather

The dreams that have been

In the safety of night

With its old neon light

It beckons to strangers

And they always come in

And the snow it was falling

Neon was calling

The music was low

And the night Christmas Eve

And here was the danger

That even with strangers

Inside of this night

It’s easier to believe

Then the door opened wide

And a child came inside

That no one in the bar

Had seen there before

And he asked did we know

That outside in the snow

That someone was lost

Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed

Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice

To that corner streetlight

Where standing alone

By a broken pay phone

Was a girl, the child said

Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling

Neon was calling

Bartender turned and said, “Not that I care

But how would you know this?”

The child said, “I’ve noticed

If one could be home, they’d be already there”

Then the bartender came out, from behind the bar

And in all of his life, was never that far

And he did something else that he thought no one saw

When he took all the cash from the register drawer

Then he followed the child to the girl across the street

And we watched from the bar as they started to speak

Then he called for a cab then he said, “J.F.K.”

Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away

And we saw in his hand, that the cash was all gone

From the light that she had wished upon

If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last

By helpin’ a neighbour

Even a stranger

To know who needs help

You need only just ask

Then he looked for the child

But the child wasn’t there

Just the wind and the snow

Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside

Somehow different, I think

For the rest of the night

No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say

That some neighbourhood kid

Wandered in on some bums

In the world where they hid

But they weren’t there

So they couldn’t see

By an old neon star

On that night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling

And neon was calling

In case you should wonder

In case you should care

Why we on our own

Never went home?

On that night of all nights

We were already there

The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

Trans Siberian Orchestra The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

Remembering all our ghosts tonight  

Trans-Siberian Orchestra “The Lost Christmas Eve”

Trans Siberian Orchestra – The Lost Christmas Eve

What’s Cooking: Sugarplum Bread

Republished from 12/11/2011 from the What’s Cooking Archives at The Stars Hollow Gazette

In Autumn, the appearance in grocery stores of stacks of candied fruit and mountains of nuts in all their wonderful variety is a sure sign of the approach of the holidays. As the days grow short and the nights grow cool preparations for a joyous time of baking begins.

My daughter is the bread baker but Sugarplum Bread is the one I enjoy making, too. This sweet bread studded with candied fruit is not as heavy as fruit cake. It is topped with a white icing glaze and decorated with red and green cherries to look like clusters of berries. It is a treat for breakfast or in the afternoon with tea. I make small ones baked in large muffin tins, decorated and wrapped in colored plastic wrap tied with ribbon as gifts for guests.

The following recipe is a rich dough flavored with nutmeg, candied fruit and peel, and raisins

Candied fruit would have melted in the summer heat and its sweetness would attract ants but it keeps well in the freezer. After the holidays, when the price is reduced for clearance, if you have space in your freezer buy a supply. It assures that you’ll have candied fruit on hand in the months when it can’t be found in the market.

The Ghosts of Christmas Eve

It ain’t Dickens. Narrated by Ossie Davis with the music of the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

The Ghosts of Christmas Eve

In this room where shadows live

And ghosts that failed learn time forgives

Welcome, friends, please stay awhile

Our story starts with one small child

Who spends this night in attics dark

Where dreams are stored like sleeping hearts

And so it’s here that they must wait

Till someone wishes them awake

For somewhere on this night of nights

She’s looking to believe

Here among the ghosts on Christmas Eve

And there near an old looking glass

There was a trunk from Christmas past

That she had somehow missed before

But now decides she will explore

‘Twas filled with toys and one old wreath

And several letters underneath

So as the evening hours leave

The child sat down and started to read

For somewhere on this night of nights

She’s looking to believe

Here among the ghosts on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve

“Breaking the Silence”

When you see a wrong there is only one way to right it, shout it to the skies.

Break the silence. Silence Kills.

I hear some distant drumbeat

A heartbeat pulsing low

Is it coming from within

A heartbeat I don’t know

A troubled heart knows no peace

A dark and poisoned poolOf liberty now lost

A pawn an oppressor’s tool.

Oh my heart be strong

And guide when eyes grow dim

When ears grow deaf with empty words

When I know there’s life within.

A gunfire shatters silence

Where birds once sweetly sang

A mother cradles a child now dead

Now death where life began

From the troubled heart of South Africa

Nicaragua’s festering sore

The turmoil on the streets of China

Death crying out for more

A change is slow in coming

My eyes can scarcely see

The rays of hope come streaming

Through the smoke of apathy

But oh my heart be strong

And guide when eyes grow dim

When ears grow deaf with empty words

When I know there’s life within.

May the spirit never die

Though a troubled heart feels pain

When the long winter is over

It will blossom once again

May there yet be Peace On Earth.

The 12 Gifts of Christmas Aftermath

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the day. Merry Day to those who don’t.

The 12 Awkward Days of Xmas

12 Awkward Days of Xmas by the Miskreant Muppets

What’s Cooking: Sugarplum Bread

Republished from 12/11/2011 from the What’s Cooking Archives at The Stars Hollow Gazette

In Autumn, the appearance in grocery stores of stacks of candied fruit and mountains of nuts in all their wonderful variety is a sure sign of the approach of the holidays. As the days grow short and the nights grow cool preparations for a joyous time of baking begins.

My daughter is the bread baker but Sugarplum Bread is the one I enjoy making, too. This sweet bread studded with candied fruit is not as heavy as fruit cake. It is topped with a white icing glaze and decorated with red and green cherries to look like clusters of berries. It is a treat for breakfast or in the afternoon with tea. I make small ones baked in large muffin tins, decorated and wrapped in colored plastic wrap tied with ribbon as gifts for guests.

The following recipe is a rich dough flavored with nutmeg, candied fruit and peel, and raisins

Candied fruit would have melted in the summer heat and its sweetness would attract ants but it keeps well in the freezer. After the holidays, when the price is reduced for clearance, if you have space in your freezer buy a supply. It assures that you’ll have candied fruit on hand in the months when it can’t be found in the market.

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