Since I know you have nothing else to do, Ryan, could you get rid of the Thanksgiving theme? ;)

Thanks!
TG

Whoa! That was fast! I was just reading along, clicking the "next" button and all of a sudden the world was blanketed with snow!!

Very refreshing! :)

Webfoot (looking for her cross country skis...)

Holy cow! That was fast!

Hey Ryan, could I have a new car with a trunk full of letterboxing supplies?

(Checking garage hopefully...)

GG

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Hey Ryan, could I have a new car with a trunk full of letterboxing supplies?

That's Santa's department. I just work the website. =)

-- Ryan

Cool! Literally!

Every time I "refresh" the screen, the dreidels change characters... Woohoo! Gimel! I win!

-wassamatta_u

I'm reading all these posts, and I click back on my page--It's snowing. Wow, that was fast. But, why the dreidels in the corner?
Chickadee

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why the dreidels in the corner?

And what are dreidels? Wassamatta_u don't start with the changing characters bit :-P

YT

Holy Free Time, Batman - that was fast!!

Ryan/Santa may I please have a winning lotto ticket so I don't have to go back to work tomorrow after 6 days off? Never hurts to ask....

pre
<especially fond of holly, as in: For some of us everyday is a HollyDay>

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Every time I "refresh" the screen, the dreidels change characters... Woohoo! Gimel! I win!

Oh boy ... here we go again!

I really like the "winter wonderland" music myself ... great touch!

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what are dreidels?

Dreidels are the little top looking things in the bottom left corner opposite the snowman. They are spinners used in a Jewish game at Hanukkah. I think they are mostly American. I have a co-worker that is very international. He says that Hanukkah has been commercialized in the US like Christmas. In other countries they don't get a bunch of presents, just the "gilt" they win when they play the dreidel game. Look it up on Wikipedia.
Chickadee

The dreidels are in the corner because Hanukkah is coming up (starts December 15 at sundown), and dreidels are a classic game played during that time. I actually have the instructions for them, if anyone wants me to post them.

And YT, if you were serious in asking what dreidels are, they are the little four-sided tops in the bottom right-hand corner of the web page. Each players starts out with a certain amount of "gelt"--which can be anything from those gold-covered chocolate coins to raisins or even rocks--and then depending on what they spin, they either add to the pot or get to take some or all of the pot themselves.

I like that Santa is running all over looking for rudy.....lol

Whoa, don't look now, but it's snowing!! *S*

Yes ... and the flakes are falling very slowly, just like I would imagine them to ... IF I were in a place that actually got snow.

Thanks, Ryan, for coating my short-sleeved world white!

And on this note, I created a poem for my plight in an e-mail to another AQer the other day ... she suggested I share with the crowd, so for what its worth (don't expect much) ...

************

Oh the weather outside's not frightful, and the sun is quite delightful
And since we've no chance of snow, let it go, let it go, let it go!

Oh it doesn't show signs of falling, so my dear, here I am calling:
"Come on down, storms of snow!" But I hear "no," I hear "no," I hear "no."

When we finally get a flake, oh I probably won't even be awake.
And as long as the weather's warm, oh, the A/C I'll keep on!

Though I wish I could see some sledding, instead I must be kidding!
'Cause of course there's no chance of snow, so let it go, let it go, let it go!

************

Struggling to "let it go" in Texas,
S of the PEAS ;-)

hahaha that is very good!!

Have you always been there in TX with no snow? Here in upstate NY we have had beautiful weather. No snow yet...nothing measurable anyway. But I hear its supposed to turn on Friday.....

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And YT, if you were serious in asking what dreidels are

Thanks for the info Pied Piper. I realised they where those things in the corner but I didn't know what they were for. Glad you could tell me. Atlas Quest is my Wikiepedia :-)

YT

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Dreidels are the little top looking things in the bottom left corner opposite the snowman. They are spinners used in a Jewish game at Hanukkah. I think they are mostly American. I have a co-worker that is very international. He says that Hanukkah has been commercialized in the US like Christmas. In other countries they don't get a bunch of presents, just the "gilt" they win when they play the dreidel game. Look it up on Wikipedia.
Chickadee

Actually, the dreidel game is a pretty old one. And while Hannukah itself may have become more commercialized in the U.S. in the same manner as Christmas, the holiday itself has actually rather charming origins. The Festival of Lights celebrates a Jewish miracle. According to the Talmud, when the Jewish people were rededicating the temple in Jerusalem following the triumph of the Macabees over the Seleucid Empire, they had only enough oil to fuel the lamps for one day. The miracle is that the lamps actually stayed lit for eight days on that amount of fuel, which was enough time for more oil to be collected and consecrated.

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Have you always been there in TX with no snow?

We get maybe one "good" (read, 1-2 inches) snowfall per year. Two years ago it was on Easter, and in 2003 it was on Valentine's Day. Crazy, huh? Last year we got nothing worth mentioning. But, of course, if you have always lived where snow is a reality, you would be shocked at how the world shuts down down here even with 1-2" of snow! It's a hoot!

No, I grew up in Alabama (not too much snow there, either), college in Georgia (likewise), and lived in southern Arizona for three years (no comment necessary). After that, I lived in Germany for a couple years. Now we got some good snow there. I enjoyed that! Just imagine a blanket of white over a picturesque little village ... (ah, the good ol' days!). From there, western Washington (state). Some snow, but mostly slush. We did get in some good skiing though! (Come to think of it, I got in a couple trips of good skiing in southern Arizona - though it seems antithetical - and Germany, too.) But, alas, God has brought us to the great state of Texas, precipitation-deprived and ski-slope-deficient though it is. *sigh*

I will live vicariously through all of you up north! (who will probably be sick and tired of snow before I ever see a flake! hee hee!)
S of the PEAS

I went to school in central VA....a few flakes of snow the entire town shut down....the grocery stores are cleaned out....people preparing for being snowbound.

My freshman year, the weekend we got back from Christmas break (Superbowl weekend) we got over 3 feet of snow. It fell from Thursday to sunday night. We had a 5 day weekend right at the beginning of the semester. 51% iof my freshman class were from NY, NJ and CT. We KNEW how to drive in snow. All the locals were huddling inside and us Northerners were doing donuts in the parking lots. Being pulled behind the car on a tube....all that fun crazy stuff that dumb college kids do....

:-)

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************

Oh the weather outside's not frightful, and the sun is quite delightful
And since we've no chance of snow, let it go, let it go, let it go!

Oh it doesn't show signs of falling, so my dear, here I am calling:
"Come on down, storms of snow!" But I hear "no," I hear "no," I hear "no."

When we finally get a flake, oh I probably won't even be awake.
And as long as the weather's warm, oh, the A/C I'll keep on!

Though I wish I could see some sledding, instead I must be kidding!
'Cause of course there's no chance of snow, so let it go, let it go, let it go!

************

Hey S,

Yeah it made the board:)

And not to make things worse, but we did actually get snow today:) Although it didn't stick, maybe tonight??(fingers and toes crossed:)

T;)

PEAS, they were saying earlier that we have a chance of sleet and freezing rain Thursday. Then we can at least slide down our driveways on our cardboard sleds! (We don't have real sleds in Texas.)

We used to live in Austin where it snowed maybe once every 10 years, and it was never on the ground but for a couple of hours. It's snowed or iced every year, at least once, since we moved to Fort Worth 5 years ago. I'll take what I can get, I guess. Remember that Valentine's Day a few years ago? That was nice.

Chickadee, of Jolly Roger Fame...
My sister inlaw is Jewish, Its pretty cool that you checked out what
Dreidels are, I believe alot of people are not sure what they are...
Spinning tops traditionaly given at Hanukkah as a gift...They are fun
to play with...
FB

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you would be shocked at how the world shuts down down here even with 1-2" of snow! It's a hoot!

We have the same problem here in the NW. They delayed school this morning by two hours because of a little skiff of snow. I grew up in Utah (I hear they will be getting 6 - 8 inchess tonight at my mom's house) so it really irks me to have my schedule messed up over a light dusting. Makes me miss the years we spent in Arizona and New Mexico until I remember having to put ice packs in the kids' car seats so they wouldn't get burned by the buckles. I guess you have your drawbacks wherever you live.

Is it too much to ask for 78 degrees all the time? All I want to do is go out and find some boxes?
K

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I grew up in Utah

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the years we spent in Arizona

what parts, if you don't mind my asking?

salt lake native now living in gilbert

night writer

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Oh boy ... here we go again!

I've noticed that if you have a message up long enough the snowman melts just a little. But you have to have the same message up for a while.

Shiloh

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I've noticed that if you have a message up long enough the snowman melts just a little. But you have to have the same message up for a while.

Shiloh

Hmm, that's funny--my snowman doesn't melt, just does a fan dance. Which browser are you using?

Pied Piper

*grumble*

Holly for Solstice, dreidel for Chanukkah.

I KNOW we've Bible thumper types here; they've posted.

Couldn't we have one corner for something vaguely Christmas related?

Please?

Pretty please?

The snowman could wear a Santa hat. That would be close enough!

That's odd. I took the holly to be Christmas related, since it has been incorporated into U.K. and American Christmas celebrations.

Don't you remember that song from "Mame"?

Haul out the holly
Put up a tree before my spirits fall again
Put up the stockings
I know it's rushing things but
Deck the halls again now

Because we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Angels at the window
Candles at the spinnet
Yes we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
We need a little Christmas now

I'm not positive that all of those words are perfectly right (I'm too lazy to look them up on my favorite lyrics website), but I think you get the picture.

Pied Piper (who is thrilled that we pipers are mentioned in the 12 Days of Christmas)

Dreidels are not American.

In Ancient Israel, they were used to disguise secret meetings before the Macabees won the revolution. The letters on each side signify moves in the game, but they also translate to represent "A Miracle Happened Here".

Modern usage is during Chanukkah. Children often play the game with foil covered chocolate coins known as gelt. (Not to be confused with gefilte) My first game, we used dried beans, which, if nothing else, melted more slowly.

Traditionally, each child (younger than 13) in the household receives one gift each night of Chanukkah.

No, there is no such thing as a Chanukkah bush. Sorry. That actually is American and about as non-traditional as a Jew can get. You see them mostly in mixed households.

If you should choose to follow a Jew, should you not know his ways? :)

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I KNOW we've Bible thumper types here; they've posted.

Couldn't we have one corner for something vaguely Christmas related?

Don't worry--there's a whole Christmas theme that will go up eventually. Santa, trees, candy canes, and those terrible ugly colors of red and green enough to make you vomit. ;o)

It'll go up a week before Christmas. Nobody can stand the theme longer than a week. It's a bit over the top. *nodding*

-- Ryan