Oh Holy Fight

I love the song Oh Holy Night. It is absolutely one of my favorite Christmas songs. My good friend Carol sang this song at our December wedding in 1998.  It just brings back such wonderful memories for me.

Now, I have a new memory.
Today my five year old decided to change the words to Oh Holy Fight.  Here's his new rendition.

 
Oh Holy fight
The stars are bright and tooting
It is the night of a night to fight

Long lay a girl
She fights to fight a Power Ranger
The red one, a Power Ranger and Santa too.


This boy song has not ruined my favorite carol, but how did we get from Oh Holy Night to include a Power Ranger, Santa, and they all fight it out?

I will never completely know.  This is my world.

General Sideburns

This is who we sent to school today.  His name is General Ambrose Everett Burnside and, yes, he is quite imposing. 

My Hubby Bee did a great job creating Burnside's outfit and famous facial hair.  (Yes, hubby is the one who uses the sewing machine and he uses it well.)

The thing about General Burnside, as Union Civil War generals go, he was sort of, well, so so.  My little guy wanted him to be grander.  I explained we really couldn't rewrite history and Burnside is what he drew from the hat.

While researching old Burnside we came upon some fun facts about this man.  He was known for his interesting facial hair.  His muttonchops did battle with every other muttonchops and so the term "sideburns" was born.  It really was quite the impressive facial hair.

But this man who someone noted had a "bigger heart than head for leading a great army" was kind, compassionate, and rather congenial.  Not exactly what Lincoln may have needed in the Battle of Fredericksburg.  But his kindly demeanor served him well as the Governor of Rhode Island and later a U.S. Senator.

Even though historians have Burnside down as one of the failing Union Generals, he did not fail in life.  One account of his funeral said it was one of the grandest shows of respect for any Rhode Island citizen.  Now there's the grandeur.  Plus, those sideburns were awesome.

Elf on the Shelf

He knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake...

So the song goes, but some children do wonder how Santa monitors their behavior, especially when it's down to the wire. So some families have enlisted the help of a little pixie-elf who shows up usually after Thanksgiving to watch the naughty and niceness of the household. 

Well our little elf is back this year and I wanted to share again the story of how this popular Christmas tradition got started for many families across the country and the world.

You see this at the stores as a kit called The Elf on the Shelf 

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