New York City: The Apple is Big on Christmas Lights

Awixa Castle at Christmas

New York City is arguably the premier city in the world. The Big Apple is home to Wall Street, Broadway, Times Square and, as Huey Lewis sang, "you can do a half a million things all at a quarter to three". During this time of year, Rockefeller Center is lit up like it's high noon with a giant tree decorated to the nines. I am not too familiar with NYC, but I am sure that there are a thousand other such things going on. A little Google Fu led me to a place on Long Island called Awixa Castle.

The original deed on the land that Awixa Castle sits on, dates back over 400 years authorized by Queen Anne of England. The Castle itself didn't come to fruition until the early 20th Century. In 1999, a guy bought the place and it was in disrepair, so he decided to fix it up. And he did. Now a days, Awixa Castle is used for various charitable events a few times a year. In addition, at Christmas time, the castle is transformed into a magical lighted fantasy land, with over 250,000 lights on over three acres of land.

Here's a video interview with Joe Weiss, the owner of the castle. Throughout the interview, you'll get to see various mini-. displays within the big display. It's quite a sight to behold.

You can find several more photos and with a little site navigation, you'll also see and learn quite a bit about Awixa Castle.

Texas Tidbits: The Lamb

I spend a considerable amount of time using "bing" or "Google" to find material for this blog and my two others, Dumbass News and Because Toby Said So. I go through probably 25 stories every time I search for blog material before I find the one I feel is a good one for the Topic of the Day. Today, I went through two. One was a story I had previously posted. The second one is the kind of story, an allegory really, that is a perfect fit for our Christmas Season posts. It is from December 22, 1999 and was written by an El Paso lawyer named Ron Jackson who is/was a Deacon at the First Baptist Church of El Paso.

Mr. Jackson's story begins thusly......."A blizzard raked the Texas Panhandle with sleet that Christmas morning.
___My brother brought news of a new-born lamb frozen in the sheep pen. All of the ewes were lambing, with one in terrible distress, unable to complete delivery. We herded the sheep into the barn. The heat from their bodies and a small gas furnace raised the temperature, but the sheep still were in danger. The lambs were arriving more than two months too early. We were not prepared. The young ewes were not ready--they were barely able to bear their lambs".......

Read the rest of this beautiful story here.

I have always liked the reference to Jesus as the Lamb of God. It's such a simple, yet powerful metaphor for the sacrifice Jesus made for you, me and every other person who has lived during the past 2000 years. It is through the sacrifice of the Lamb, the Son of Man, that we may achieve eternal life and give Glory to the Lord, God.

Merry Christmas.

Quick Post - Addition to Blogroll

Spider by eremophila

Just a quick note to let you know that I have made an addition to my blogroll! It's a really cool site with some terrific photos (Which you can purchase of you like. They're that good.), poetry and other thoughts from eremophila, the blog Administrator. It's called eremophila's musings Stop by the place and browse around. You'll thank me later. :)

Toby