Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[Oksana]

Merry Christmas to everybody as HWI! May this season and the new year bring you lots of comfort and joy!

Love,
'Someone'

[roger]

Thank you, Someone, that's really sweet of you.

I wish you and everybody here a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Best wishes,
Roger

[Raymond]

Merry Christmas.

Raymond

[Joe]

I hope that my friends round the world celebrate their Christmas or other winter holiday with peace in their heart.

PS. Hi Someone...where I live (north-east PA), many people are of the Russian Orthodox faith. Quite a few schools and businesses close as well. So they also will celebrate Christmas with you, on January 6.

Joe
(hugs and handshakes to all)

[Belinda]

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hayley should by now have spent a Great day with her family and friends, Its just after 7pm here Christmas night in New Zealand.It rained most of today ,but now the sun is shining and its quite warm.. 27 degrees was forcast.
Lets hope Boxing Day brings a fine day so Hayley can go to the beach. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif


Belinda

[fusilier23]

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Sing a song for the glorious season!
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Sing a song for a happy new year!

Sing verily, merrily, loud and strong,
Welcome the wintery season!
Just follow along with a holiday song,
Santa is here again! Yes!

Now reindeer fly, if you need any proof,
'Smerely a matter of reason!
Just listen, you'll hear when they land on the roof,
Santa is here again! Yes!

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Sing a song for the glorious season!
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Sing a song for a happy new year!
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Sing a song for the obvious reason!

It's a magical, lyrical, annual miracle!
Sing a loud song, sing a song for a Happy New Year!

Yes!

(as performed by the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, under the direction of Hayley's good friend Keith Lockhart)

I think this says it all, though it is a bit secular.

[Dave]

belinda said:

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hayley should by now have spent a Great day with her family and friends, Its just after 7pm here Christmas night in New Zealand.It rained most of today ,but now the sun is shining and its quite warm.. 27 degrees was forcast.
Lets hope Boxing Day brings a fine day so Hayley can go to the beach. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif
Belinda

Go to the beach? Very nice too of you like that kind of thing! But Hayley (and you !) will miss all the fun! Here's the latest weather forecast for SE England and London:

EARLY WARNING of Heavy Snow Issued by the Met Office at 09:45 on Sunday, 25 December

OVERALL RISK ASSESSMENT: The probability of disruption due to severe weather conditions in parts of the United Kingdom within the next 4 days is 80 percent.

The Met Office expects snow showers to develop over eastern parts of the United Kingdom from Boxing day evening onwards. The showers will become heavy and prolonged in places.

There is potential for several centimetres of snow to occur widely, and in excess of 15cm in a few locations, with Kent and parts of E Anglia most vulnerable to the heavier falls. Icy roads will be an additional hazard.
Some travel disruption is expected.

Now, where's that rusty old sledge?

Have a very [glow=blue,6,900]Merry Christmas[/glow] everyone!

[waltermc]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!




It's about seventy degrees where I am in Texas, but unfortunately no beach!

I hope everybody got what they wanted for Christmas.

I myself have health, happiness, and my new friends at HWI.

What more could I ask?

Well, maybe some ham. I think it's ready, gotta go!

[alien]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Allen

[Richard]

Thanks for the kind message Someone!

I wasn't on-line yesterday, but I can still wish you a Merry Christmas for 6th January, and I hope everybody at HWI has a very happy and prosperous 2006! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes from London,

Richard

[fusilier23]

And to our Latin friends as well, who will celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings on that day.

But, for today, happy Boxing Day! Now, if I could just find my gloves... i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[fusilier23]

Well, I trust we're all still taking it kinda easy enjoying our new things, and scarfing down the last few pieces of ham and the last cookies left over from Xmas dinner.

But, though these things are all enjoyable, one hopes the real "reason for the season" isn't forgotten, as Kristyn so eloquently pointed out in her patter between songs.

There's more to the season, of course, as the chorus I belong to tried to communicate with our recent performance including excerpts from Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabeus." The piece is based, course, on the Biblical Book of Maccabees, which tells the story of the protracted war between Jewish forces under Judas Maccabeus (the Latinized form of Judah Maccabee, “Judah the Hammer”) and Seleucid Greek invaders under Antiochus Epiphanes, one of several local successors to Alexander the Great in the 160s B.C.

The revolt was precipitated by Antiochus’ foolhardy and evil attempt to wipe out Jewish culture by forbidding its practices and demanding that all worship the Greek pantheon on pain of death.

Rallying to Judas, son of the priest Matthias, who actually started the revolt by striking down a Greek official, the Jews initially were only capable of guerilla tactics and hit-and-run raids, but by 166 B.C. they had both the numbers and the equipment to meet the Greeks in the field. Antiochus was no Alexander, and at the Battle of Emmaus Judas caught his forces in an ambush and killed 3,000, no small number at any time, but in that day devastating.

A year later Judas’ forces marched into Jerusalem, and though the Greeks in the central citadel were still to hold out for some time, they could do nothing but watch as Judas’ force entered the Temple, overturned the pagan altars, and lit the sacred lamps in re-dedication. The Book further states that, though there was only enough holy oil to keep the lamps burning for one day, they burned for eight, by which time more holy oil had been consecrated. This miracle continues to be observed each year by Jews the world over in the feast of Chanukah. Arguably this was one of the decisive wars of history, for it ensured that Judaism would not be destroyed, and Christianity, an outgrowth thereof, would be born.

The Christmas time also marks another decisive event, almost 1800 years later. His army disintegrating as enlistments expired, supplies running low, and winter coming on, George Washington needed a victory and he needed it now, or the Continental cause would be lost.

Staking everything on one bold stroke, he led his polyglot force, German-speakers from PA, fishermen from Marblehead, "blues" from NJ, and others, over the ice-choked Delaware River during a snowstorm, landing near Trenton, where three regiments of Britain's Hessian allies including the hated Colonel von Rall, who'd murdered surrendering Americans in the disastrous Battle of Long Island, were encamped, mostly hung over from celebrating Christmas.

The swords of Captain Alexander Hamilton and a few others dispatched the one sentry post who might have raised the alarm, and though a local loyalist passed Rall a letter about what might happen, his message went unread.

As the dawn rose, the Continentals drew up their lines, and at the first light the voice of Colonel Henry Knox broke the silence as he ordered the artillery to open fire. The infantry advanced, firing their muskets, against at best sporadic resistance, as the Hessians tried to offer resistance but could not get their heavy weapons deployed quickly. Continental cannonballs smashed men to bloody junk left and right, and then a chance shot felled von Rall himself. That broke the Hessians' back, and 1,000 of 1,400 surrendered, leaving 30 of their number dead on the field, while the rest fled.

Seizing 1,000+ muskets, cannons, and other supplies, Washington quickly moved north, knowing that British field commander Cornwallis would be on his path swiftly. Cornwallis tried to box Washington in, but in doing so split his force. At Princeton on January 2nd, Washington defeated the smaller force, grabbed their supplies also, and dashed away to Morristown before Cornwallis knew what had happened.

In ten days Washington had fanned the dying embers of the revolution into bright red flame that would not die again. I daresay that without Trenton and Princeton there would have been no Saratoga to convince the French and Spanish to join the fight, and no Yorktown to end British rule here. Maybe no America at all, and even if it had gotten independence, it well might not have become the greatest of nations it has.

So, in this season, whether you celebrate the light of salvation, the light of self-determination, or the light of freedom, remember these special times.

Just a thought or two from the local historian.

[Joe]

Happy New Year !

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I'd like to wish all of the HWI staff, members and guests a happy and healthy 2006 ! May the new year be fillled with blessings and prosperity for all. And, Hayley, we'll be with you every step of the way!

[Richard]

Hello everybody!

I would also like to wish Hayley, her family and all her fans around the world a very

Happy New Year!

I look forward to meeting some of you at Hayley's concerts in 2006! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes from London,

Richard

[Raymond]

Happy New Year Everyone!

Raymond