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World of Words Wednesday and Wednesday Memes

Christmas is in the air and everywhere – on the radio, in  the malls, on
the roads (you see the decorations on the streets, trees tied on the
top of the car ahead of you and beside you), at work (a colleague
brought a tree as part of the ‘Make a Wish’ foundation with requests of
gifts for kids on the tree), at home (the tree at home, of course and
the kids practicing their winter recital songs everyday!).  Here are
photos of our tree. I use a big red bow in lieu of an angel on top of
the tree.

I also realized we have collected, unintentionally, lots of
Christmasy/wintry books over the years. so I looked through our bookshelves and
started reading them this week to my five year old (correction, she read it
herself today – just needed a little help with words like together). Here are the reviews for those books:

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies – Then you will need to buy popcorn, get some string, get a tree, make a snowman, and so on and so forth until he will want to go to the movies all over again. Children will love reading this as the mouse makes connections – like they do, if ‘this’ then ‘that’ and enjoy the fun illustrations accompanying the text – all Christmassy! My daughter was able to read this book all by herself and so proud of it. I guess I have to take her to the movies as a treat! and buy her some popcorn. The tree we already have, the snowman – well we don’t have any snow here.
A Silly Snowy Day  – A tortoise named Shelley decides she wants to explore winter – find out for herself how it looks and feels instead of hibernating like her parents. Even though her parents say it is ridiculous, she still decides to set out after they are snoring. What she learns out there as a tortoise in winter – in a place out of her comfort zone – makes up the rest of the story. My daughter and I read in a ‘I read to you, You read to me’ style and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Both books go towards the Picture Book Challenge
Wondrous Words Wednesday: 
Kathy over at Bermudaonion’s Weblog hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday.
If you come across a word (or two) while reading that is new to
you and would like to share your new knowledge, then hop over to
Kathy’s place and link up!
I discovered
this wonderful website FreeRice a few years ago courtesy of a friend. I
spent hours on this site initially and later it got lost in my
ever-growing list of favorite websites. I recalled this site today as I
was looking at my word list to select a few words for WWW. I thought it
will be great to have a look again – now, I can sign up there – and I
did so. I spent sometime playing and donated a few grains of rice as I
played! Isn’t that nice – improve your vocabulary and do some good.

From the website:
FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme.
FreeRice has two goals:

  • Provide education to everyone for free.
  • Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on this site.

My entry for WWW this week is from there as well:
rathskeller = tavern 

Ratskeller (German: “council’s cellar”, historically Rathskeller) is a name in German-speaking countries for a bar or restaurant located in the basement of a city hall (Rathaus) or nearby. As a proper noun, many taverns, nightclubs
and similar establishments throughout the world now use this as a name.
The word had been used in English since the mid-19th century.
At least one New York restaurant called itself a “rathskeller” in the 19th century.

relucent = gleaming
Archaic bright; shining

[from Latin relūcēre to shine out, from re- + lūcēre to shine, from lūx light]
habergeon = chain mail coat 
(Military / Arms & Armour (excluding
Firearms)) a light sleeveless coat of mail worn in the 14th century
under the plated hauberk
viridity = greenness
1.

a. The quality or condition of being green; greenness.
b. The green color of vegetation or leaves.
2. Innocence or inexperience.

10 thoughts on “World of Words Wednesday and Wednesday Memes

  1. We got our tree in the house last night, but there aren't any decorations on it yet.

    I knew Rathskeller because there used to be a bar by that name close to campus when I was in school.

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