Nancy's Notes

Body On December 24, 1865, Phillips Brooks was half a world away from home and feeling older than his thirty years. Only six years into his ministry, Brooks had been called upon in May to give the funeral message over President Abraham Lincoln.

Body “The First Noel” is one of the oldest Christmas ballads still sung today. The song first appeared in print in 1833; however the song goes back at least three hundred years prior to that. The origin is also unknown as both France and England claim it as a part of their heritage.

Body Keeping with the past two years, in the month of December I have been sharing the stories of how some of our beloved Christmas carols and songs came to be. The information comes from a little book I own: “Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas,” by Ace Collins.

Body Several seeks ago I shared with a Bible study group that lately, I’ve been feeling so much anxiety, with gut-wrenching worry as I watch the evening world news. I really didn’t WANT to watch the constant bad-news stories, but at the same time, I also couldn’t NOT watch.

Body You probably saw this on TV news a couple weeks ago. I got a cold chill that didn’t go away for hours after seeing the story on TV news of five people who were stranded over 200-feet underground at Grand Canyon Caverns when the elevator malfunctioned, and they could not get out.

Body For whatever reason, this has been “the summer of Jell-O” at our house. It started back in spring/early summer when we had some Jell-O salad left over after some event; I don’t remember just what exactly.

Body The prisoner was a woman, unusual in 19th century America. And the fine was large for that day—$100.00 plus court costs. After being held for quite some time in a New York jail, the prisoner finally had her day in court.

Body Several years ago, I believe it was the fall of 2019 b.c. (before covid), one of the keynote speakers at the Kansas Housing annual conference was an author by the name of Sarah Smarsh.

Body Onomatopoeia! My what a word!

Body There’s a little word that gets overused in some circles, and just hearing it can drive me a bit over the edge. Like, you know what I mean? You know, like, really?