Hi everyone, The Coffee is late today as Earthlink had technical problems and we weren't able to access our email. Better late than never, they say ... :-| ) ( ) Good Morning Family! .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . \| |// ...and we even have decaf, | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! \ / ------ Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. WHOPBOF Site Fight 3. A Few Facts About Hanukkah 4. Christmas Potpourri: the Christmas tree **** REMINDER: GIFTS FOR OUR FAMILY CHRISTMAS ARE DUE TO ME BY DECEMBER 9th **** If you've been with the family for at least three weeks, you'll probably want to skip the following paragraph… TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur ancestors or any of the 81+ variant spellings we research that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. Our home is Bower Community, located at <http://bowercommunity.com>. There, we currently have two sites: The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our primary homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://bowercommunity.com/homestead>. Smaller and just opened this year, our sister site, the Bower Cottage, houses most of our projects including an online GEDCOM fed by quite a few cousins from our lists. The Cottage is still small as far as material goes, however give us time and we'll have it filled really soon. The Cottage is at <http://bowercommunity.com/cottage>. WHOPBOF SITE FIGHT We're just about ready to move into our final competition phase which will start on midnight EST Tuesday, 5 December. Under penalty of disqualification, I will not be able to touch the Homestead at all after 10 p.m. MST on Monday, 4 December, until next Sunday. We have just a few more hours to put the final touches on everything. I owe very, very special thanks to all the cousins who stepped in to help me get our home ready. Of particular note are Molly (a.k.a. Grand Molly) <[email protected]> who went into the Homestead five days ago and noticed a few fatal flaws then, from there, went on to do a final walk-through of the entire site. Gloria Motter <[email protected]>, always willing to help wherever she can, made the first sweep of our home when we moved to our domain in November. She was aided by Lureigne Gimay <[email protected]> and Lynda Boone <[email protected]>. Between these four ladies, they both found enough errors that the look of our home and our competition scores would certainly have suffered. Barbara Bower <[email protected]>, our family's resident artist, very adeptly critiqued all the graphics, assuring our premium quality presentation. Lynne Ranieri <[email protected]>, the family's editor-in-chief, edited the writing ~ striving for crisp clarity free of language mechanics, gramatical and spelling errors, etc.. Lynne keeps our home at its highest communication levels. Many others of you pointed out those 'little things' that can bring our home to a shiny polish or, without repair, drag it down to a shabby site. It's your attention to the smallest details and errors that help keep our home beautiful. I owe all of you who bring those 'little things' to my attention equally as much thanks. Without the help of all of you, our home would not look as good and 'together' as it does. I've said it before ~ I'll say it again, "We are a family; we stand together as ONE and (on the Web) present ourselves as such." When we go into this site fight on Tuesday morning, those judges will know that they have met OUR FAMILY and we take pride in who we are! :) I'll send out a voting notice on Tuesday, reminding you all to vote and where, when and how to do so on Wednesday. Those of you in the family fold in April (when we competed in the quarterlys) will remember that the voting day is extremely important since the vote counts as half of our scores. Because of that, voting is cut-throat among the competition. If you have multiple e-mail addies you can place a vote using each address. AOL members can only vote once with their AOL addresses; however, if you have web based e-mail address[es], you can use them. Please ask your friends, relatives and coworkers vote for us on Wednesday, December 6th. I will be at my computer all day on Wednesday in case any of you need help. We're taught that winning isn't everything, cousins ~ and it's true. We've given ourselves every chance so that, if we don't win, we'll know we tried ... and tried our best as a team, as a family. That's all anyone can ask for. A FEW FACTS ABOUT HANUKKAH You know family, we sometimes neglect to remember there are cousins who do not celebrate the holidays as we do and may not celebrate Christmas at all. We have Jewish cousins in the family and today I would like to recognize their December holidays with these few facts ~~ ** We've all heard of Hanukkah. Did you know it's also spelled Chanukah, and both spellings are pronounced the same? ** Though its popularly named the Festival of Lights, are you aware that Hanukkah is really the Hebrew word meaning "dedication?" ** Why is there a Hanukkah? The story of this day is the struggle for religious freedom and is celebrated to commemorate the victory of the Judeans over the Syrians in 164 B.C. ** The story of Hanukkah: Over 2,000 years ago, the land of Judea was ruled by Antiochus, a Syrian king. The Syrians persecuted the Jews and refused to allow them to practice their religion. They erected statues in the Jews' holy Temple which the Judeans were supposed to bow down to. In 167 B.C., Mattathias, a well-respected priest, gathered together an army and put his five sons in charge. Judah and his brothers chose a name for themselves that signified force and strength; it was "Maccabee", meaning "hammer." It took three years of fighting, but in 164 B.C., the Maccabees drove the Syrians out of Israel and reclaimed the temple in Jerusalem. Following their victory, the Maccabees, entered their Holy Temple in Jerusalem which had been defiled by the Syrian invaders. The Jews cleansed and purified it and rededicated it to the service of God. Then, in memory of their victory, the Maccabbees celebrated the first Hanukkah. ** According to the Talmud, the body of Jewish oral law, the Judean heroes, led by Judah Maccabbee, were preparing for the Temple's rededication and were unable to find enough undefiled olive oil to light the lamps. In one of the Temple chambers, they found a small flask of oil, its amount sufficient for only one day. However, it kept the Temple lights burning for eight nights until a fresh supply of pure oil fit for use in the temple was obtained. Hanukkah celebrates that miracle of the flask oil. ** The date of celebrating Hanukkah varies on the Western calendar. Generally if falls in December, but it is sometimes in late November. Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of Kislev, the day the Maccabbes rededicated the temple over 2000 years ago. This year Hanukkah begins in the evening of December 21st and runs through December 29th. ** At nightfall one candle is added each night to the menorah, (a nine-stemmed candleholder) starting fom the right and working to the left. Then the candles are lit from the newest one on the left and then one by one to the right. The ninth candle, the Shamash (a helper candle), is used for lighting the other candles and is usually set a little apart from the others in the middle of the menorah (the nine-stemmed candleholder). Prayers accompany the lighting of the candles. ** It is customary during the holiday for members of the family to eat oil delicacies such as sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and latkes (potato pancakes) as reminders of the miracle of the flask oil. ** It is traditional to give small gifts to children on each night of hanukkah. Following the religious ceremony, the celebration is enhanced with songs, games and toys such as the dreidel, a spinning top. CHRISTMAS POTPOURRI: THE CHRISTMAS TREE ** The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture. ** The Christmas tree has a long history in Europe. The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In Germany, cutting down fir trees to be used in their holiday celebrations is documented also in the early 1500's. In the 16th century Martin Luther was credited as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Christmas trees became such a popular practice that by 1561 an ordinance was passed limiting the size of trees cut to 8 feet. Decorations on these trees were elaborate - candles, sweets and dolls. ** Christmas trees were not popular in England until the German influence prevailed in the 19th century when Queen Victoria married a German nobleman, Prince Albert. He brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the royal family in 1834. ** The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania. ** In 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom. ** In 1856, President Franklin Pierce introduced the first Christmas tree to the White House. The first national Christmas tree was lighted on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge in 1923. ** The custom of giving Christmas gifts to relatives and friends on a special day in winter probably began in ancient Rome and northern Europe. In these regions, people gave each other small presents as part of their year-end celebrations. Upon finishing this piece, I think back to Christmases past and how far our trees have come to today. More on Christmas trees will come out next week. Happy birthday to all our December babies! The family and I send special greetings that your coming year is filled with health and enjoyment. You are loved! Family ... it's what we're all about. Thank you for allowing me to spend this time with you. I hope your upcoming week is filled with health, productivity, fun, and above all, filled with love. ) ( ) _.-~~-. (@\'--'/. Colleen ('``.__.'`) `..____.'