What Day Means the Most of 12 Days of Christmas to You?

The song goes, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…"


The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. i.e. the Church.

1st Day: The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus upon the Cross. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge because she would feign injury to decoy a predator away from her nestlings. She was even willing to die for them.

The tree is the symbol of the fall of the human race through the sin of Adam and Eve. It is also the symbol of its redemption by Jesus Christ on the tree of the Cross.

2nd Day: The "two turtle doves" refers to the Old and New Testaments.

3rd Day: The "three French hens" stand for faith, hope and love—the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (1 Corinthians 13).

4th Day: The "four calling birds" refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.

5th Day: The "five golden rings" represents the first five books of the Bible, also called the Jewish Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

6th Day: The "six geese a-laying" is the six days of creation.

7th Day: The "seven swans a-swimming" refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.

8th Day: The "eight maids a milking " reminded children of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.

9th Day: The "nine ladies dancing" were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

10th Day: The "ten lords a-leaping" represents the Ten Commandments

11th Day: The "eleven pipers piping" refers to the eleven faithful apostles.

12th Day: The ‘twelve drummers drumming" were the twelve points of belief expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

For me it's the 9th day. It is what I hope to be but never manage to get there. To me, being able to be all of that, would be bliss. While I have these "fruits" at times in my life, I never manage to hang onto all of the at once.

Teen's plea for homeless brings season's bounty

Teen's plea for homeless brings season's bounty

Mark Pino Sentinel Staff Writer
December 24, 2008
Will Webster's idea seemed modest: leave fliers and bags with 200 of his Heathrow neighbors with a holiday plea for food and toys for the homeless.

His neighbors' generosity exceeded the 13-year-old's expectations.

Tuesday he delivered about 400 pounds of food and $500 worth of toys to the Rescue Outreach Mission of Sanford, which is a block away from Sanford Middle School, where he is an eighth-grader.

"I was pretty overwhelmed," he said. "It says a lot. This is going to make a huge difference. I feel like it will make a lot of kids and families happy for Christmas."
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Merry Christmas to Wounded Times Blog Readers

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

King James, Luke 2;
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Thank you to all my readers for your comments and above all for trying to make a difference in this country for the sake of the people we count on the most. Because you've been interested, this blog hit over 100,000 visits.

Woman buried in snow for 3 days found alive

Woman buried in snow for 3 days found alive
Story Highlights
Donna Molnar went missing after she left her home to go grocery shopping

Housewife had been buried in snow for 72 hours when a rescue dog found her

She's in serious condition, being treated for hypothermia, severe frostbite

Dog, who had been rescued himself, will be rewarded with a T-bone steak

By Ashley Fantz
CNN


(CNN) -- No one expected to find Donna Molnar alive.


Searchers had combed the brutal backcountry of rural Ontario for the housewife from the city of Hamilton, who had left her home three days earlier in the middle of a blizzard to grocery shop.

Alongside his search-and-rescue dog Ace, Ray Lau on Monday tramped through the thick, ice-covered brush of a farmer's field, not far from where Molnar's van had been found a day earlier.

He kept thinking: Negative-20 winds? This is a search for a body.

"Then, oh, all of a sudden, Ace bolted off," said Lau. "He stooped and looked down at the snow and just barked, barked, barked."

Lau rushed to his Dutch shepherd's side.

"There she was, there was Donna, her face was almost totally covered except for one eye staring back at me!" he said. "That was, 'Wow!' There was a thousand thoughts going through my head. It was over the top."

With one ungloved hand near her neck, Molnar, 55, mumbled and tried to scream as Lau yelled to other rescuers. Dressed in a leather coat, sweater, slacks and winter boots, Molnar was carefully extracted from a 3-foot-deep mound of snow that had apparently helped to insulate her.
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GI returns to see her once-stricken daughter walk

Soldier mom's miracle 1:33
One mom comes home from Iraq to see her daughter do something doctors said she never would. WSVN's Rene Marsh reports.



GI returns to see once-stricken daughter walk
By Kelli Kennedy - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 22:05:32 EST

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — On Tuesday morning, little Cheyenne Leslie entered the Ocean Medical Center and ran purposefully into the arms of her physical therapist, to the smiles and cheers of staff workers, the girl seemingly unhindered by her arm and leg brace. It was a dress rehearsal of sorts.

A few hours later, the 4-year-old diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant — who doctors once said would likely be confined to a wheelchair for life — ran through the airport terminal to greet a mother who has never even seen her child walk.

Cyd Leslie, an Army specialist who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and other posts abroad for the past year and-a-half, has only seen her daughter’s steps on video.

The last time Leslie saw Cheyenne in person, she would take a few tentative steps and stumble.

So to finally see her walking, much less running, is nothing short of a miracle, a taste of everything her little girl will be able to accomplish in life.

For years, 24-year-old Cyd has been hoping “kids don’t tease” Cheyenne and “wondering if she’s going to have a boyfriend.”

But when Cheyenne bounded into her arms Tuesday night, she thought, “I’ll never forget this feeling.”

“I looked at her and said, ‘I know what the doctors say, but we believe in God and miracles do happen,’” Grandma Leslie said.
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President Elect Obama on the beach gives dangerous image

While it seems everyone was focused on the shape of President Elect Obama on the beach, it also seems to have not entered into their mind this picture comes with a dangerous image. If a photographer could shoot a picture without security protecting Obama, then what would have stopped someone with a gun instead? This really frightened me for him. How can people get that close in unprotected moments they are able to take a picture? Wouldn't you think he would have had a lot more protection that no one would be able to get that close? I'm really surprised the media is not more up in arms over this fact than the fact Obama is a celebrity. He happens to be a lot more than that. He's our next president for Heaven's sake!!! Where was the Secret Service that is supposed to be thinking of these things?

President Elect Obama on the beach
Celebrity in chief 2:55
Obama caught on camera in a bathing suit. Star coverage, or a new kind of news coverage? CNN's Joe Johns reports.

War-bound single mom reaches out to troops, and gets help herself

Brad Vest / P-IJoy Mack shares a moment with her daughter, Megan Fitzgerald, 6, at the Crossroad Economy Studios Extended Stay America hotel in Puyallup. The American Legion is paying for their stay because their home's heater isn't working properly.

War-bound single mom reaches out to troops, and gets help herself
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER

Like a lot of people, Joy Mack is struggling.

A single mom with two young daughters, at times Mack sometimes nets only $78 every two weeks after the bills are paid and the family needs met. She owns an older car that barely functions and is working to bring her house in Puyallup out of bankruptcy and fix some serious problems with it.

"A good house but with idiosyncrasies," Mack, 39, says of the home, which has old wiring and a faulty furnace that causes her children to wrap themselves in blankets to eat breakfast before setting off to school.

Getting the house repaired takes on more urgency for Mack than for most. After the New Year, Mack, 39, heads off to war.

A member of the Washington National Guard's 741st Explosives Ordnance Disposal Battalion, Mack leaves for training Jan. 3, then to Afghanistan sometime in February. She won't be home until 2010.

But Mack, who previously served in the Army from 1987 to 1991 with the 10th Mountain Division, is not complaining. She has sought no special treatment, no hardship exemptions.
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Illness claims Coweta soldier who was eager to serve

Illness claims Coweta soldier who was eager to serve
Tulsa World - Tulsa,OK,USA
By MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
Published: 12/23/2008 2:28 AM
Last Modified: 12/23/2008 3:10 AM

A young soldier from Coweta who wanted to serve the country "so my family can sleep in peace at night" died Saturday in Germany from a noncombat illness, officials said.

The Department of Defense on Monday identified the soldier as Army Pfc. Coleman Wayne Hinkefent, 19.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division at Baumholder, Germany.

Hinkefent had been serving in Iraq until recently, when he became ill and was flown to Hamburg, Germany, for treatment, according to his family.

His death was brought on by liver failure, and he was also undergoing treatment for acute leukemia, the family said.

Hinkefent's parents, Eric and Belinda Hinkefent, flew to Germany to be at his bedside and updated friends daily on their son's condition through the Facebook Web site.
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The young soldier's father was with him when he died.

Returning Soldier's Son Critically Burned

This family really needs our prayers.

Returning Soldier's Son Critically Burned
WYFF - Greenville,SC,USA
POSTED: 11:40 am EST December 23, 2008
TEGA CAY, S.C. -- A soldier returning to see his family for the holidays is instead by the bedside of his son, who was accidentally burned over most of his body over the weekend.

George McKemey is on active duty in Iraq and was on a flight home on Sunday when a fire in an outdoor fireplace got out of control, burning McKemey's 13-year-old son, Connor. McKemey's wife, Karin, was burned on her hands as she tried to help Connor. click link above for more

Newlywed, newly widow at Fort Campbell

101st soldier who died in Iraq had just married
Clarksville Leaf Chronicle - Clarksville,TN,USA
Submitted by Chris Smith • December 23, 2008

(AP) — A Fort Campbell soldier who died Saturday in Iraq had just celebrated his wedding to another soldier earlier this month in Alabama, his family said.

The Defense Department said Monday that 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Jonathan W. Dean of Henagar, Ala., died of injuries suffered in a noncombat related incident in Tikrit, Iraq.

He was assigned to the 561st Military Police Company, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. The military says the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

Pam Dean, his stepmother, said Tuesday that the family had just dropped him off at the airport to return to Iraq on Dec. 14 and he had only been in Iraq three days before his death.

Dean and his wife, Staff Sgt. Anne M. Dore, were married on Dec. 6 in Alabama. His wife, who is also assigned to Fort Campbell, was also deployed, but has returned for the funeral service.
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