Blog December 2016

New Year's Eve

New Year’s Eve is one of the largest global celebrations because it marks the last day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, December 31, before the New Year. People count down to the New Year no matter where you are in the world

What Do People Do?

New Year’s Eve is a day of mixed feelings for many people. On one hand, it is a time to celebrate the end of the year gone by and welcome what is in store in the New Year. On the other hand, some people experience a sense of nostalgia as they reflect on the events that took place in their lives in the past 12 months. Many people start thinking about New Year’s resolutions at this time of the year.

Some people celebrate New Year’s Eve by attending midnight church services, while others gather around in public venues such as Times Square in New York City, or Trafalgar Square in London to count down for the closing seconds of the old year. Many people hold parties to farewell the finishing year and to celebrate the New Year. The size of festive events for New Year’s Eve can vary in size and theme. Some people attend formal masquerade balls while others have costume parties. Some people have small parties or gatherings at their homes. Many New Year’s Eve celebrations are highlighted by firework displays.

Many people start counting down to New Year’s Day in the last minute or seconds before the last night of the year ends and the New Year begins. Some people tune into watching televised countdowns. As the clock strikes midnight into New Year’s Day, many people celebrate this event by exchanging hugs, kisses, and wish each other a “Happy New Year”. In some parts of the world, including in the United States, many people sing the Scottish song “Auld Lang Syne” during the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

So how do you celebrate?

Your pet needs protection from the cold

 Winter officially has arrived, and with it the cold and stormy weather. While we bundle up, our pets are sometimes not given the appropriate attention.

 Here are some tips for keeping our pets safe and healthy.

           Keep them inside when the temperature drops below freezing.

• Bang on the hood of your car before starting it to scare away stray cats that may have sought warmth from the engine.
• Never let your dog off the leash on snow or ice, especially during a snowstorm, when dogs can lose their scent and become lost. More dogs are lost during the winter than any other season, so keep ID tags on a well-fitting collar.
• Wipe off your dog's paws, legs and belly after a walk to remove ice, salt and antifreeze. Make sure a freshly bathed dog is completely dry before taking it outside.
• Put a coat or sweater with a high collar on short-haired dogs.
• Check your dog's paws frequently for signs of cold-weather injury or damage, such as cracked paw pads or bleeding. During a walk, sudden lameness may be due to ice accumulation between the toes.
• Postpone housebreaking puppies during the coldest months.
• Don't leave a pet alone in a room with a space heater. It could get knocked over and start a fire.
• Dogs that can tolerate long, cold walks -- the larger breeds with thick fur -- will need to eat more high-protein food.
• Pets need a place to sleep off the floor and away from drafts.
• Dogs that spend any time in the yard must have a dry, draft-free shelter large enough to lie down in, but small enough to retain body heat. The floor should be a few inches off the ground and covered with cedar shavings or straw. The doorway should be covered with waterproof burlap or heavy plastic. Do not use metal bowls for food and water.

Traditions of Christmas Bells

Bells, especially Church Bells, have traditionally been associated with Christmas for a long time. In the Anglican and Catholic churches, the church day starts at sunset, so any service after that is the first service of the day. So a service on Christmas Eve after sunset is traditionally the first service of Christmas day! In churches that have a Bell or Bells, They are often rung to signal the start of this service.

In some churches around the world, it is traditional that the largest bell in the church is rung four times in the hour before midnight and then at midnight all the bells are rung in celebration.

In the Catholic Church, Christmas and Easter are the only times that Mass is allowed to be held at Midnight. It's traditional that at both midnight Masses, the church and altar bells too in many cases are rung while the Priest says the "Gloria" (Gloria in excelsis Deo).

Having a Mass at Midnight at Christmas dates back to the early church, when it was believed that Jesus was born at midnight, although there has never been any proof of this! A lot of Churches have midnight services on Christmas Eve, although not every church will have a mass or communion as part of the service.

In many Catholic countries such as France, Spain and Italy, the midnight mass service is very important and everyone tries to go to a service.

In Victorian times, it was very fashionable to go carol singing with small handbells to play the tune of the carol. Sometimes there would only be the bells and no singing! Handbell ringing is still popular today.

The Christmas tree: It’s long been a symbol of the holiday season.

Each year, people around the world cut down an evergreen tree and decorate it with lights and ornaments, but have you ever thought about how this tradition started?

People started putting lights – candles to be more specific – on Christmas trees in the middle of the 17th century. These were attached to the end of tree branches with wax or pins and were adhered to the tree to represent shining stars. This tradition started in Germany and spread to Eastern Europe over the next two centuries. Because this was a serious fire hazard, most people didn’t put their trees up until December 24, ensuring that they would only be up for a brief period of time while the tree was still fresh – and much less flammable.

The custom of putting strings of lights on trees began in 1882 when Edward Johnson – an associate of Thomas Edison – wired red, white and blue bulbs together and placed them on an evergreen tree. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland followed suit and decorated a Christmas tree in the White House with stringed lights. The public took notice, and the tradition started to catch on.

However, it was extremely expensive to have a lit Christmas tree. General Electric sold bulbs for this purpose, but they needed to be wired together by a professional electrician. Additionally, if a homeowner wanted a lit Christmas tree, but didn’t have electricity yet, they’d have to purchase a generator to keep the lights on.

In 1903, the American Eveready Company developed an easier to use light set involving screw-in bulbs and a plug-in for the wall socket. Even with this easier to use equipment, electric tree lights weren’t catching on rapidly. People were still using unsafe candles as a way to light their trees, until Albert Sadacca came up with the idea to make the lights multi-colored in 1917.

He and his two brothers Henri and Leon started NOMA Electric Company, which became the largest Christmas lighting company in the world. Since that time, lights have continued to evolve.

Miniature bulb sets came about in the late 1960s and came in strands of 25 or 50 lights. These were very similar to the standard miniature lights available today. However, there are more options available for size and color today than there were in the past.

The latest advancement in holiday lights is the use of LED (light-emitting diode) technology. These lights are far more efficient than incandescent lights and have a much longer life-span.

I was asked that if a boat has a capacity plate, Does that mean the U.S. Coast Guard certified that my boat is safe?

Neither the U.S. Coast Guard nor any other federal agency certifies boats.

In fact, there are only a few federal laws governing boat-building, including flotation requirements for powerboats under 20 feet, passenger- and weight-capacity labels, and fuel-system safety. Manufacturers self-certify that their boats meet these legal standards.

The Coast Guard does, however, have a factory-visit program that audits boat-builders periodically for spot checks and tests a few dozen boats for flotation compliance every year.

A comprehensive list of voluntary standards has been written by the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC). Boat-builders who are members of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and build to ABYC standards will have an NMMA-certification label in plain view on most boats built after 2007.

To be sure a boat is safe, a good survey by a competent independent surveyor is advisable.

Poinsettias at Christmas

Poinsettia plants are native to Central America, especially an area of southern Mexico known as 'Taxco del Alarcon' where they flower during the winter. The ancient Aztecs called them 'cuetlaxochitl'. The Aztecs had many uses for them including using the flowers (actually special types of leaves known as bracts rather than being flowers) to make a purple dye for clothes and cosmetics and the milky white sap was made into a medicine to treat fevers. (Today we call the sap latex!)

The poinsettia was made widely known because of a man called Joel Roberts Poinsett (that's why we call them Poinsettia!). He was the first Ambassador from the USA to Mexico in 1825. Poinsett had some greenhouses on his plantations in South Carolina, and while visiting the Taco area in 1828, he became very interested in the plants. He immediately sent some of the plants back to South Carolina, where he began growing the plants and sending them to friends and botanical gardens.

One of the friends he sent plants to was John Barroom of Philadelphia, who gave the plant to his friend, Robert Buist, a plants-man from Pennsylvania. Robert Buist was probably the first person to have sold the poinsettias under their botanical, or latin name, name 'Euphorbia pulcherrima' (it means, 'the most beautiful Euphorbia'). It is thought that they became known as Poinsettia in the mid 1830's when people found out who had first brought them to America from Mexico.

There is an old Mexican legend about how Poinsettias and Christmas come together, it goes like this:

There was once a poor Mexican girl called Pepita who had no present to give the the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked to the chapel, sadly, her cousin Pedro tried to cheer her up.
'Pepita', he said "I'm sure that even the smallest gift, given by someone who loves him will make Jesus Happy."

Pepita didn't know what she could give, so she picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a a small bouquet. She felt embarrassed because she could only give this small present to Jesus. As she walked through the chapel to the altar, she remembered what Pedro had said. She began to feel better, knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into bright red flowers, and everyone who saw them were sure they had seen a miracle. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the 'Flores de Noche Buena', or 'Flowers of the Holy Night'.

The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ. The white leaves represent his purity.

Air Raid On Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor External, Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. A total of twelve ships sank or were beached in the attack and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed and more than 150 others damaged. A hurried dispatch from the ranking United States naval officer in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, to all major navy commands and fleet units provided the first official word of the attack at the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base. It said simply: AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.

The following day, in an address to a joint session of Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 “a date which will live in infamy.” Congress then declared War on Japan, abandoning the nation’s isolationism policy and ushering the United States into World War II. Within days, Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States, and the country began a rapid transition to a wartime economy by building up armaments in support of military campaigns in the Pacific, North Africa, and Europe.

Go Scooting

Have a hard to please boater to shop for?

Always dreamed of a secret underwater lair à la James Bond,  but never had the undersea means to pull off the act? Need a different kind of gift? Well, your time has come. Highly maneuverable and neutrally buoyant scooters make it possible to enjoy underwater diving and exploring in a whole new way. Given that many of us can't afford to drop "five figures" on a super-sleek, 12-knot SeaBob (but check out them out, the line of scooters from Sea-Doo has something for everyone. Powered by lithium-ion batteries that keep you going for up to 90 minutes, the 21-pound RS1 has automatic-buoyancy control, making it easy to stay where you want in the water column, an important safety consideration if you don't have tanks strapped to your back. Three speed settings topping out at nearly 4 knots, comfortable handles, and rugged construction make the RS1 the one you want!

Happy Shopping