December 22, 2023

Overview for this week.

1. I'm starting this week with some modern holiday classics from Charlie Brown and the Muppets.

2. Next, Colorado has become the first state to reintroduce wild wolves without the assistance of the federal government.

3. In Reaching High I check in on a friend, Mary Walker, who is reaching new heights in Pakistan's Himalaya. I've trekked with Mary a few times and was always impressed by her bravery!

4. The Winter Solstice is here. Yesterday was the shortest day of the year. I, for one am happy to be welcoming longer days.

5. Our fellow Flocker, Sarah Smallhouse continues with her selfless efforts to make America forever greater.

6. One of my first award winning youth entrepreneurs continues to rise. She publishes her own news blog and has received a full tuition athletic scholarship. Way to shine Zoe!

7. We glimpse in on the fun that Reid Park Zoo families had making Christmas Cookies and gingerbread houses.

8. In the Kid's Corner we show you how to access NORAD's Santa Tracker this year.

9. We catch up with an old friend, Oliver in the Pet's Corner.

10. I'm closing this week with the classic Christmas song, Bing Crosby singing White Christmas.

Now, to this week's Flock.

If you were a child, or had children in the sixties, seventies or eighties, you'll remember these holiday classics. A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired in 1965 and A Muppet Family Christmas debuted in 1987, both quickly became regular staples of the holiday season.

Peanuts Gang : Christmas Song "Linus & Lucy"

Charlie Brown Christmas | Soundtrack Suite (Vince Guaraldi)

Muppet's Family Christmas - Jingle Bell Rock

A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) - Full Special

From: The Colorado Sun, By: Jason Blevins, December 18, 2023

The wolf loped through the snowy meadow into a copse of aspens, her fur blending with the browns, grays and whites of the remote corner of state land.

She turned for a moment to look back at the collection of about 45 people gathered around the crates before trotting into the forest. In the meadow of spruce, pinyon and aspens, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials released five wolves Monday morning in Grand County.

What it looked like as Colorado wildlife officials released 5 Oregon wolves in Grand County

London native Mary Walker, a friend of mine, is traveling through Pakistan's Himalaya. I have always looked up to her in more ways than one. Mary always seems to be going further, faster, and higher than me. I've been following her trek on facebook and would like to share a bit of it with The Flock here.

Mary has also done the Bhutan Snowman Trek, a tour on my bucket list that I have still yet to do.

With my experienced guide and driver, we drove from Islamabad to Chilas and crossed the Babusar Pass, which connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan. Sometimes considered one of the most dangerous routes in Pakistan because of the mountainous slopes.

– Mary Walker

My favourite picture from the trip: to savour this view of Nanga Parbat, the Killer Mountain. 8,125m

– Mary Walker

We gave you a heads up on the Winter Solstice back on December 8. The Solstice this year was yesterday and today. This week we're also looking at what you can see in the night sky on this, the longest night of the year, and what happens after the solstice.

From: Britannica, November 16, 2023

Winter solstice, the two moments during the year when the path of the Sun in the sky is farthest south in the Northern Hemisphere (December 21 or 22) and farthest north in the Southern Hemisphere (June 20 or 21). At the winter solstice the Sun travels the shortest path through the sky, and that day therefore has the least daylight and the longest night.

From: Almanac, By: Bob Berman, November 22, 2023

The winter solstice occurs on Thursday, December 21, at 10:27 p.m. Yes, this is the “shortest” day of the year, but let’s talk about how many minutes each day the daylight increases afterward. Plus, we’ll discuss other ways you can see and feel the solstice.

How Much Does Daylight Increase?

The psychologically optimistic part of all this is that starting Friday, December 22, 2023, we will stop losing daily sunlight, which has been going on since June, and instead finally start to increase it!

This gain will be minuscule at first, just a matter of seconds a day, but will steadily grow until daily daylight expands by three daily minutes per day in March. The exact amount of brightness gain depends on your location.

From: Almanac, December 19, 2023

December’s full Moon rises near sunset for several nights in a row: December 25, 26, and 27. How perfect for the Christmas season! Learn why the full Cold Moon (also called the Long Night Moon) is special. 

When to See December’s Full Moon

The full Moon for December is 100% illuminated on December 26, 7:33 P.M. (EST). This is the first full Moon after the winter solstice, and it falls right during Christmastime this year!

To our eyes, the Moon’s disk will appear fully illuminated a couple of days before a full Moon, so start looking on December 24 and 25 towards the east after sunset as it peaks over the horizon.

We have been following Flock friend and contributor, Sarah Smallhouse and her work with Make Elections Fair Arizona to bring open primaries to Arizona. There have been some developments this week in the effort to get their initiative on next November's ballot. A group, Better Ballot Arizona, who was promoting a different, but similar initiative to bring open primaries to the state has bowed out of the race reducing the chance of confusion between the two similar efforts and increasing the chance for the Make Elections Fair Arizona initiative to make it to the ballot. I'd like to give a big nod and thank you to Sarah for her selfless efforts to make elections fair for every American voter.

From: AzCentral, By Abe Kwok, December 20, 2023

The decision to halt a citizen-led initiative to adopt open primary elections and ranked choice voting is, oddly enough, a bigger loss for its opponents than supporters.

In bowing out, backers of Better Ballot Arizona pave the way for a kindred initiative to make its case with voters.

And a better one at that.

I'm giving you an update on rising tennis star Zoe Crimmel. Zoe has been publishing a blog, Where in the World is Zoe, where she chronicles her journey entering the world of Women's professional tennis. I love this blog and the unique perspective that Zoe brings to it. In her most recent weekly post, the 31st! Zoe announced her acceptance of a "full ride" scholarship to Alcom State University in Lorman, Mississippi. You don't just deserve this Zoe, you earned it!

Here are the Ramsey kids with their ugly sweater cookies. They had a lot of fun.

Each year at Christmas time I like to send out some Christmas cookie and gingerbread house kits to friends and the staff of organizations that I frequent. This year, staff members from the Reid Park Zoo were kind enough to share some photos of their creations with The Flock.

Christmas music, hot coco & and cookies. We all had a great time and the kids really loved the activity!

Horton, the Hornbill, with his gingerbread house! He is a bird of one of the zoo's animal care supervisors.

Horton with his "finished" gingerbread house.

From: NORAD

NORAD's predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), began tracking Santa in 1955. NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958 and took over the mission of tracking Santa's flight around the world, and they have been tracking Santa every year since!

Dreaming of a white Christmas

I might try a pomegranate, but Santa can keep the lemons.

This is more like it, Santa

Growing up in New Hampshire, as a young girl I enjoyed a white Christmas more often than not. To me it's just not Christmas time without listening Irving Berlin's White Christmas sung by the great Bing Crosby. Please enjoy the video below and have yourself a Merry Christmas!

Boldog Karácsonyt! • Joyeux Noël! • Frohe Weihnachten! • Buon Natal! • Feliz Natal! • ¡Feliz Navidad!

White Christmas (Official Video)

Merry Christmas!

Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories!

I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our second year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story.

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