 © Undine DeFilippo 2013 TCM's video entitled REMEMBERING 2013 CLICK ON THE HIGHLIGHTED TITLE TO VIEW THE VIDEO features a most appropriate song By SLEEPING AT LAST. Hope you enjoy the insightful lyrics below: "In The Embers" WE LIVE AND WE DIE LIKE FIREWORKS. OUR LEGACIES HIDE IN THE EMBERS. MAY OUR STORIES CATCH FIRE AND BURN BRIGHT ENOUGH TO CATCH GOD's EYE. WE LIVE AND WE DIE. LIKE FIREWORKS WE PULL APART THE DARK; COMPETE AGAINST THE STARS WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS, TIL OUR TEMPORARY BRILLIANCE TURNS TO ASH. WE PULL APART THE DARKNESS WHILE WE CAN. MAY WE LIVE AND DIE A VALOROUS LIFE. MAY WE WRITE IT ALL DOWN IN CURSIVE LIGHT. SO WE PRAY WE WERE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF A FIGURE EIGHT. MAY WE LIVE AND DIE LIKE FIREWORKS WE PULL APART THE DARK; COMPETE AGAINST THE STARS WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS, TIL OUR TEMPORARY BRILLIANCE TURNS TO ASH. WE PULL APART THE DARKNESS WHILE WE CAN. **** * * * **** WISHING YOU ALL A MOST BRILLIANT 2014
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 When I was a child, growing up in New York City, we kept European traditions on Christmas Eve. After an early seafood supper, we dressed in our finest outfits, got on a bus and walked our way to an evening Church service. Those evenings were always cold and crisp, but my favorites were making the trip as fresh snow fell. I sang First Soprano in the Children’s Choir and LOVED wearing the long white robe and large red collar that overlaid it. Each one of us was fussed over and given a candle with last minute reminders. Once the Church bells stopped pealing, the Music Instructor gave a whispered cue to thirty three of us waiting outside the door. Candles lit and held chest high, we followed a lucky boy carrying a GIANT GOLD CROSS, the luckiest boy with a giant candle stick almost as tall as himself and the clergy. Single file, double spaced, we sang JOY TO THE WORLD and neatly placed ourselves stage left to the Altar.  Undine DeFilippo singing OH TANTE BAUM After the service we hurried home for coffee and cake, sweets and gift giving. There was always laughter... once the adults settled in with their Christmas toasts. Each child, was expected to perform a recitation, song or tune BEFORE getting any gifts. It seemed this part of Christmas was something the adults waited for all year ! I had come to understand at a very early age that Saint Nick,{ the Christmas Man aka Santa Claus }, was a very real person who lived a LONG LONG LONG time ago.  Illustration By Hedda Obermaier-Wenz Born in 280 AD, in what is now Turkey, he was known as The Gift Giver of Myra. So that his identity would remain secret, he gave his gifts in the dead of night. St Nicholas was eventually named the Patron Saint of children, sailors, Russia and Greece. He was a very rich person and became a Christian Bishop with an earned reputation of being wise and kind. The tradition of hanging stockings at the fireplace followed one of his middle of the nite gift giving bonanzas. St. Nick dropped BAGS OF GOLD into the stockings of three sisters on their wedding day because their father had nothing to give them.  Illustration By Hedda Obermaier-Wenz In the year 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian commanded ALL to worship him as a god. St. Nicholas refusal landed him in a nasty tiny cell, where he suffered from cold, hunger and thirst for better than five years. When Constantine became Emperor in 313, he was released and continued to carry out his gift giving, until his death at age 63 on December 6 th. 343. Because of his exceptional kind heart and generosity, he was Sainted and thereby BLESSED to continue having the ability to accomplish kind deeds during the Christmas season for the deserving, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN and ANIMALS. I believe I did see him thru a key hole that year, as I practiced "OH TANTE BAUM" but the angle only afforded me his black boots. I thought I was singing praises to someone’s age old Aunt dressed in something frilly and green which brought knee slapping peales of laughter from the adults. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT !!! |
 Undine DeFilippo
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