1 December 25

For the first weekday in Advent 2025 I'm wearing my tie featuring Christmas bells and holly! My calendar shows that December is National Tie Month, so I'm starting it in good fashion. Two trivia in trademark history: Mr. Peanut was registered on this date in 1925, and the Scrabble board game was registered in 1948.

8 December 24

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men . . . " (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Today's bells-on-holly tie aims to ring out the message of PEACE, the main theme for the Second Sunday in Advent.

7 December 22

 Wearing bells on holly!

8 December 21

Today's tie ties bells onto holly garland. I've had it since 2013 but I am not sure of the source -- possibly found at a Goodwill store. We are also continuing to tie masks to our faces at EKU as the pandemic continues (and worsens).

20 December 20

Happy Christmas Sunday, aka Advent IV! One traditional theme for the fourth Sunday in Advent is Love. My tie shows bells on garlands of holly.

29 December 19

For the Fifth Day of Christmas I do not have "five golden rings" but I am wearing scores of Christmas bells on strings of holly! This is my last tie for the "teens." There is some debate over whether the decade ends "now" or at the end of 2020. My solution is to say that we are "entering the twenties." Personally, I am entering my third-third of a century.

2 December 18

For the first Sunday in Advent 2018 I chose my Christmas Bells tie -- and then we sang "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" in the church service at First United Methodist Church (in Richmond), where Beth was the guest organist. After the service I was invited/enlisted to play bells next Sunday!

10 December 17

Today is Dewey Decimal System Day, honoring the birthday of Melvil Dewey (1851-1931). It's also the second Sunday in Advent, celebrating PEACE. I'm wearing my bells-on-holly-garland tie because our handbell choir at Somerset First Presbyterian Church is playing "Mary, Did You Know . . .?" for the offertory in the morning service.

4 December 16

On this second Sunday in Advent our handbell choir is playing an arrangement of "Joy To The World." It's a bit unusual to feature that carol during Advent, but our version, titled "In Quiet Joy," places the melody in a minor key and invites the listeners to meditate on all three "comings" of Christ -- long ago, in our present lives, and in the future. You can listen to an iPhone recording of our prelude at this link.

17 December 15

Today's tie signals "ringing out the old year" as far as wearing ties to work! EKU's offices are open Friday morning but then we're off until 4 January. I'm now accepting suggestions for new occasions I should be sure to celebrate (with a tie) in 2016.

7 December 14

Gold bells and green garland for the second Sunday in Advent. And we had lunch with our grandson-by-inclusion Jamison Haskins and his parents, David and Rachel!

2 December 13

Today is the second day of Advent; it is also the 71st anniversary of the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, so imagine these Christmas bells ringing in harmonic oscillation!

25 June 13

Happy Half-Christmas! I received this "Christmas Bells" tie earlier this year, and had to wait until today to wear it.