**The Tuner Christmas Thread**

[bushwakka]

slap chop....skin she out

[KURMAman]

[homeboy]

LMAO^^^^^^

[Oleander]

Traditional Christmas plum pudding



Ingredients
120 g brown sugar
120 g suet, chopped or grated
120 g sultanas
120 g raisins, halved but not chopped
60 g currants
60 g shredded mixed mixed candied peel
60 g plain flour
60 g breadcrumbs
30 g almonds
1 lemon, grated zest only
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
150 ml milk
150 ml brandy

To decorate
handful bay leaves
handful redcurrants or cranberries
25 g sugar
egg whites, beaten

For the brandy sauce
100 g flour
100 g butter
500 ml milk
50 g caster sugar
brandy, to taste
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Method
1. Make the pudding a few days before serving. Butter a large pudding basin and coat a cloth with flour ready to cover the pudding. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, suet, sultanas, raisins, currants, candied peel, flour, breadcrumbs, almonds, lemon zest, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the eggs, milk and brandy and mix well.

3. Place the mixture in the buttered pudding basing, cover with the floured cloth and secure tightly with string. Prepare a steamer with boiling water, add the pudding basin and cook at a gentle simmer for 5-6 hours, topping up the water level regularly.

4. On the day of serving, reheat the pudding by steaming it again for at least 2 hours.

5. To make the decorations, dust the bay leaves and fruit in sugar. Dip them individually into the beaten egg whites then set aside to harden.

6. Meanwhile, make the brandy sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and allow the mixture to simmer slowly for 2-3 minutes. Gradually add the milk and caster sugar, plus generous tablespoons of brandy depending on how strong you like the sauce. Gently bring to the boil, stirring all the time and cook for 4-5 minutes.

7. Turn the hot pudding out of the basin, decorate the top with the sugared bay and fruit and serve with the brandy sauce.

[janfar]

Oleander... yuh aint want this for yuh christmas instead???

[Oleander]

[Oleander]

janfar it's beautiful

[janfar]

yuh like it ent... is time man... make it legit... tuner xmas wedding FTW!!!

[RBphoto]

Plenty people doing cupcakes this year...like is a new fashion. This is a top view of the teir that my wife bought for a function from a tallented young lady.

[triniangie]

^oooooh nice

on my list this year:



but i gotta wait till nex yr

[bushwakka]

chiney parang

[crazybalhead]

LOLOLOLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! Yuh want a waterpik for Christmas??? AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

[K74T]

[Oleander]

The History of Christmas Bells



With Christmas nearing, you might be wondering about the history of Christmas bells. You might already be acquainted with some of the tradition and legends behind some other Christmas traditions such as the Christmas tree, but the exact history behind Christmas bells might have peaked your curiosity.


From Beginning to End
Bells are typically rung to announce a major life event or occasion. They are rung on both joyous and sad occasions including both weddings and funerals. Bells are rung at Christmas to announce and celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Our modern day ringing of bells can be traced back to the Pagan religion, a major world religion that preceded Christianity. It was not uncommon for Pagans to ring bells to keep evil spirits away. Ringing bells was part of many Pagan winter celebrations. Millenia ago, many Pagan customs were adapted to fit into Christian celebrations. Christmas bells were also probably one of the least expensive musical instruments you could find.

A Common Christmas Tradition
Christmas bells take different forms in different cultures. In Haiti, they have wooden bells that actually don’t ring in lieu of the silver bells that we are all used to.

Nowadays, Christmas bells are a common part of our Christmas celebrations. We use bells to decorate. The front door of most homes is usually adorned with Christmas bells to make a pleasant noise as guests enter our homes during the Christmas season. Christmas bells are also widely popularized in many Christmas songs such as Jingle Bells and Silver Bells. Christmas bells make a festive embellishment to the outside of your Christmas presents, so consider affixing a small Christmas bells onto your wrapped Christmas presents this holiday season.

Today, Christmas bells are such an integral part of our holiday celebration that it is hard to imagine the Christmas season without the appealing sound of bells ringing.

http://www.christmaslore.com/the_histor ... bells.html

[Oleander]

[Oleander]

[aidan]

Most epic christmas song ever

[Oleander]

The History of Christmas Carols

Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around the 22nd December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived!

Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. In AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written, in 760AD, by Comas of Jerusalem for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write carols. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn't understand. By the time of the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.


This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. One carols that changed like this is 'I Saw Three Ships'.

When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained mainly unsung until Victorian times, when two men called William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected lots of old Christmas music from villages in England.


Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called 'Waits'. These were bands of people led by important local leaders (such as council leaders) who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public (If others did this, they were sometimes charged as beggars!). They were called 'Waits' because they only sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as 'watchnight' or 'waitnight' because of the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began.

Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. Many new carols,such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written .


New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today! One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in countries all over the world.

Perhaps the most famous carol service, is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio (and all over the world). In my house, we listen to it and it means Christmas has really started!! The Service was first performed in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of the First World War. It is always started with a single choir boy singing a solo of the first verse of the Carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. Sing along to Once in Royal David's City! (on a different site) A service of Nine Lessons and Carols, has nine bible readings (or lessons!) that tell the Christmas story with one or two carols between each lesson. Sometimes you get carol services which are a combination of nine lessons and carols and carols by candlelight! So you have nine lessons and carols by candlelight!

[Oleander]

aidan

[Oleander]

Poinsettias
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 (also known as bracts) 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 U.S.A. to Mexico in 1825. Mr. Poinsett also founded the scientific institution in the U.S.A called the Smithsonian Institute. 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 grow 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 plantsmans 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 it became known as Poinsettia in the mid 1830's when people found out who had first brought it to America from Mexico.

There is an old Mexican legend about how Poinsettia's 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.

[Oleander]

GIFTS FOR HIM

[cinco]

hollllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dddddddddddddd forrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkk oooonnnnnnnnnn
yuh want a hummer then get supersoaked and skeet shot
we can invent something for the domino 1lick

[Oleander]

GIFTS FOR HER

[Oleander]

The 12 Days of Christmas
In England, between 1558 and 1829, it was not legal for Catholics to practice their kind of Christianity in private or in public. Being a Catholic was treated as a bad crime. If you even owned a Catholic Bible, you could be put in prison! Catholics were stopped from worshipping because King Henry VIII fell out with the Catholic Church and started his own 'Protestant' Church (the Church of England). There were many people who were still Catholics and they worshipped in secret.

'The Twelve Days of Christmas' was written in England at the beginning of this time. Some people think that it was written to help children learn about their Catholic religion. In the carol, the days are supposed to represent special symbols and have hidden meanings, because it was illegal to have anything in writing that would indicate that you were a Catholic.

But there's no evidence that this is true and it seems most likely just to be a folk song and the meaning were added at a later date! Also, all the symbols can be used by Protestants and other Christians! There was another song called 'A New Dial', written in 1625, which gave religious meanings to the 12 Days of Christmas, but not so people could practise their faith is secret. If you'd like to know more about this, please go to the 12 Days of Christmas page on snopes.com

The 12 Days of Christmas refer to the twelve day period that starts with Christmas day and ends on Epiphany (6th January). The song begins, On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... The 'true love' was meant to represent God, the true love of the world. The 'me' in the carol is the Christian man or woman who receives these presents. The meanings given to the 12 Days are:

The 'partridge in a pear tree' is Jesus who died on the cross. In ancient times a partridge was often used as mythological symbol of a divine, sacred king.

The 'two turtle doves' are the Old and New Testaments of the Bible - another gift from God. Doves also symbolise peace.

The 'three French hens' are faith, hope and love - the three gifts of the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 13). The French hens can also represent God the Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The 'four calling birds' are the four Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible.

The 'five golden rings' are the first five books of the Bible also called the Pentateuch, the Books of Moses or the Torah.

The 'six geese a-laying' are the six days of creation.

The 'seven swans a swimming' are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 12:8-11, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4:10-11)

The 'eight maids a milking' are the eight beatitudes, Jesus' teachings on happiness. (See Matthew 5:3-10)

The 'nine ladies dancing' are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. (See Galatians 5:22)

The 'ten lords a-leaping' are the Ten Commandments in the Bible. (See Exodus 20)

The 'eleven pipers piping' are the eleven faithful disciples of Jesus

The 'twelve drummers drumming' were the twelve points of the Apostles' Creed.

[Oleander]

[aidan]

aidan

holey crap,

epic win!

[..77.]

For Christmas I get her a buncha gift certificates from the malls . Ones that dont have a time limit on them . My woman gets a real big kick outta going and looking and looking and looking in the stores . And ALSO if they dont see something they like , they can go back an do more shopping when the spring and summer stuff comes out .
I also take her out for a nice dinner
Also i,d be a little wary of gettin the woman a vibrator , really who wants to compete with something that wont stop or is rechargeable ??.
Heres you at the doctors office
Doctor , doctor ... I keep having these wierd dreams like 3 or 6 nights a week
What kind of dreams
Well, dreams about my job , my life all kinds of things .
Well, those are normal dreams , every body has them , what makes you think theyre " weird "??
Its the sound in the back ground
Can u describe it
Well it kinda like Bzzzzt , Bzzzzzzzzzzzt bzzzeettttt bzzt bzzzzzzzzzzt . Like a little electrical motor working hard
..77.
And I also ply her with the standby,s . Jeweleries , perfumes etc

apparently you are loaded bro.....

No not loaded . I Just realize that I got lucky an found an exceptional mate that doesnt complain about sitting at the drags or events and seems to find great joy in spending my money .
Plus I,m a big rock kinda guy , like I dont want her to show off a ring and have other chicks go , oh thats nice . I want the other chicks to think , Man my guy never buys me stuff like that . Also a happy wife , means a quiet house and trust me when you got a Trini chick , you want all the quiet you can get haha ..77.

[Trini Hookah]

like sheself

ah hope yuh expectin change

[Oleander]

[Oleander]