Tis the season for the Gävle Goat!
"The peculiar story about the Gävle Goat started in 1966, when the idea came up to design a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas straw goat. The objective was to attract customers to the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the city. On the first Sunday of Advent 1966, the huge goat was placed at Slottstorget in Gävle. Since then, the Gävle Goat has been a Christmas symbol placed in the same spot every year. Today he is world famous. The Gävle Goat made it to the Guinness Book of Records for the first time in 1985. Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans from all around the world follow him via webcam and social media (Twitter and Instagram). Why the pixels? The purpose of the Gävle Goat's webcam is to show him off to curious fans around the world. People walking by may not want to be seen in the picture, so for privacy reasons parts of the broadcast are pixelated."
Follow the Gävle Goat live!
Some of the live video is pixelated to protect the privacy of visitors.
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Christmas night, as per tradition
Its eight o'clock. The scooby gang is all at the Lockwood manor for Tyler's party. Katherine's all alone in the Salvatore mansion.
Two mugs are set on the counter as the vampire impatiently waits for the stupid kettle to boil it's damn water. Once the whistle sounds, she eagerly removes it from the heat and fills each mug up half way with the hot water. After which she carefully mixes in packet of 'premium' hot chocolate, and fills the rest with cream. Meticulously she adds whipped cream to the top and a pirouette chocolate wafer straw in each mug.
Katherine has to pause for a moment, to let the wave of emotion pass like it does every year.
Carefully she collects both mugs and heads into the study where she sets one hot cocoa by her chair, and the other next to the empty chair beside hers. The vampire sits down, collects her mug and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she recaps the year in her head.
Finally Katherine opened her eyes to look at the roaring fire with a very soft smile.
"Vesela Koleda, mama. Imam tolkova mnogo da ti kazha tazi godina."
"nyakolko neshta vsŭshtnost sa dobri"
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The Night before the night before Christmas by Rose Mary Barlow in December 1966
‘Twas the night before etcetera…and all through the house
One creature was stirring, and that was NO mouse.
‘Twas Mama, with no kerchief, but an eye full of gloom
While the turkey was thawing all over the room.
Papa was asleep, and the children were dreaming
Of tomorrow night’s joys from the sky to come streaming.
Even Santa, away at the top of the earth,
Was pounding HIS ear in his own downy berth.
Meanwhile Mama slaved away 'til the morn
On last minute wrapping ere the great Day was born.
Now where did she hide those darn gifts for the kids
Bought way last October and put under lids?
From the top of the house to the bottom again
Mama raced to and fro and then into the den.
“Now Dasher, now Prancer, now Donder and Blitzen”,
She mutters and fumes as she marks 'Hers’ or 'His'n’.
The scotch tape breaks off and the bows fall apart,
While the paper won’t stretch…a new roll she must start!
The tree lights won’t work and blow all the fuses.
Pine needles clog the sweeper, which also confuses.
The coffee pot perks for at least one more cup
While Mama eases her back by just standing straight up.
A couple of aspirin soon remedy this
And she hangs up the mistletoe with a sibilant hiss.
The camera now…Are there flash bulbs? How many?
Does it have any film? But, of course, there’s not any.
No matter how long she works through the night
There’ll be plenty to do when tomorrow turns bright.
The moon does NOT shine on the new fallen snow.
The darn stuff won’t fall this year, Christmas or no!
Sleds and ice skates will be poorly received
And the children by sleigh bells will NOT be deceived.
“Alas! Is THIS Christmas?”, she cries out in despair.
'Tis enough to turn white poor Mother’s dark hair!
But at last she gives up with a shake of her head
And, still in her clothes, she falls into bed.
Tomorrow will be Christmas Eve, and she’ll say
“Merry Christmas to all”, for there’s always SOME way!
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I have been trying to recreate an old cassette tape my family owned when we were all young that was a Christmas Eve tradition to listen to. The cassette stopped working years ago and thankfully we were able to find it on cd but it sounded too clean. There was no static and it felt wrong. So I’ve been on a mission to add the static back in.
I added a cassette hiss to it but it still sounded wrong and with christmas coming up I figured there wasn’t much I could do. Next year I was planning on making my own cassette hiss recording to get it as close as possible.
And then this morning I had an epiphany. It used to be on vinyl! Before it was a cassette it was a record. My dad recorded the cassette himself from our old record player.
It took me ten minutes to add in the record pops and I almost cried. It sounds perfect.
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