I finished loading the rental truck with all of my belongings. The darkness of the cold winter’s day was already upon me and it was time to go. I said my goodbyes to family and friends, which was emotional for everyone, but I was ready to move on and to start the rest of my life.
I climbed up and onto the driver’s seat, put on my seatbelt, and started the truck. My eyes welled a bit as I took one last look back through the outside rearview mirror. Then I shifted into drive and my new life’s journey commenced.
(100 words)
Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers prompt. Photo credit: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.
Frank (aka PCGuy) and Di (aka Pensitivity101) alternate as hosts for Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. Today is Di’s turn to host and she’s given us these Christmas-oriented questions
1. What did the Three Wise Men bring as gifts to the babe in the stables?
A Bed Bath and Beyond a 20% off coupon, an Amazon gift card, and an iPad Mini.
2. Band Aid had a Number One hit with the same record 3 times. What was it?
Rubberband Man.
3. Why is Rudolph’s nose red?
Rudolph is an alcoholic.
4. Who was Santa’s Little Helper?
Elf on the Shelf.
5. What will you find on Quality Street?
The good stuff.
6. What is egg nog?
It’s when you have a constantly running nose and a bad head cold in the old noggin.
7. Who is Saint Nick?
Nick, the owner of a Greek bistro in town. The guy has the patience of a saint.
8. Where is Christmas Island?
Across the bay from Easter Island.
9. What does Feliz Navidad mean?
It’s what Felix Navi’s friends call his father. Think about it.
Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 24th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.
Being that today is Christmas Eve, I thought it appropriate to reach back to a post from my old blog that I posted on Christmas Eve in 2009.
Christmas Competition
As I compose this on the eve of Christmas, I was struck by the apparent heated competition between two Christmas icons, Jesus and Santa. I remember passing a church a few years ago on my way to work, and a large sign outside of the church asked, “Who is better, Santa Claus or Jesus Christ?” I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a rhetorical question or a trick question.
The competition between Santa and Jesus is apparently heating up. According to one site I came across, people in a California neighborhood are upset about a controversial Christmas display a local man constructed. It depicted Jesus holding a shotgun standing over a dead Santa lying on the ground. I guess in that instance, Jesus won.
I discovered another site dedicated exclusively to this competition. This site, “Why Jesus is better than Santa Claus,” is sponsored by Just4kidsmagazine.com, which touts itself as “The First Online Christian Magazine written Just 4 Kids.” So why is Jesus better than Santa? According to this magazine for Christian kids, Santa lives at the North Pole, but Jesus lives everywhere. Santa rides in a sleigh, but Jesus rides on the wind and walks on the water. The list goes on and on and on.
Yet another site I found actually offers helpful instructions to parents faced with the dilemma of explaining to their kids the difference between Santa and Jesus. This is apparently hard work. In fact, the site suggests that “separating Santa from Jesus is one of the hardest tasks a parent will have to do….” Forget about potty training or talking to your kids about sex or drugs, Mom and Dad. This is the biggie.
There are some folks who take this competition very seriously. For example, cuttingedge.org, a site dedicated to “spiritual insights into the New World Order” (yes, the New World Order), warns that Santa is a counterfeit Jesus who has been created to replace Jesus in too many people’s lives. Its article, Jesus Christ vs Santa Claus, claims that Santa Claus is really Satan. Yes, these folks believe that “Satan, the Master Marionette, is pulling the strings above the world, leading adults and children alike away from Jesus Christ and toward Santa Claus.” Honestly, I am not making this shit up!
And one more site, which I promise will be my last link in this post, Christmas Carnivals, confirms this, suggesting that Santa Claus is a well-devised plan, a conspiracy to relegate Jesus to the background.
I never realized the intensity of this rivalry between these iconic characters. Just look at the two posters advertising the Christmas bout shown at the top of this page. It’s the biggest fight since the “Thrilla in Manilla” between heavyweight boxers Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975.
On the lighter side, an early, controversial cartoon short from the creators of South Park showed a bloody confrontation between Santa Claus and Jesus.
Fortunately, Brian Boitano saved the day for both Jesus and Santa that time. You know, What would Brian Boitano do?
So, to all of you out there who are wondering and worrying about who is better, Jesus or Santa, I say get a life. Seriously. Oh yeah, Happy Festivus.
Welcome to December 24, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “doubtful.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and the Other 