https://www.foxnews.com/us/blue-state-vi...d-pronouns

Mom charges family for Christmas dinner and more: 'It's so expensive'
'Dynamic of the celebration' can change, etiquette expert says

A mother said she's hosting Christmas dinner once again this year – and this time she's charging her family to attend.

Abi Richards, 35, of Hampshire, England, said she spent nearly $300 on food and drinks this Christmas since she's cooking for 10 family members across three days. (See the video at the top of this article.)

She's charging them each just shy of $32 to cover the costs of breakfast, lunch and dinner during those days – Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day, the latter of which is celebrated in the United Kingdom.

Richards shared the news in a video posted on social media — sparking mixed reviews.

"It's going to be expensive," she said of the cost associated with all the groceries.



Richards told news agency SWNS this is her fourth consecutive year of hosting Christmas dinner at home.

She said every year her family has "chipped in" on the grocery bill.

This year, however, she saved the receipts and "worked it out fairly" – billing eight of the adults who are attending for their share of the food and drinks.

She feeds her mother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister, her sister's partner and her niece for the holidays.

Richards said it's "easier" to do it this way, so her family doesn't have to worry about bringing anything with them for Christmas.



In addition to her immediate family, Richards feeds her mother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister, her sister's partner and her niece for the holidays.


Richards said she was making roast turkey with all the trimmings on Christmas Eve, leftovers with a festive buffet on Christmas and another meal on Boxing Day.

In her video, Richards calculated that she spent nearly $300 between two stores.

So, she did the math and decided to charge the adults almost $32 per person.

"It changes the dynamic of the celebration."

"Which I actually — I don't really think is that bad for three days' worth of eating," Richards said.

Diane Gottsman, an etiquette expert and founder of the Protocol School of Texas in San Antonio, told Fox News Digital that charging a specific amount "can easily come across as offensive."


Every year I give a rough estimate for them to chip in," Richards told SWNS. "I never like to ask for too much or too little. This is the first year I kept the receipts and worked it out fairly."

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle

Gottsman said it might be time for Richards to turn over the apron to another family member next year.

The top five absurd tips from liberal pundits for surviving holidays with Trump-voting family
The most absurd advice from liberal pundits given this year about confronting family over political differences at the holidays

As the smell of pine fills the air and the stockings are hung with care, some liberal media outlets served up advice that’s as hard to swallow as a dry fruitcake. Their mission? Equipping you to survive holiday conversations with Trump-supporting relatives.


From suggested scripts that sound more like hostage negotiations to icebreakers better suited for therapy sessions than a festive family gathering, here are five of the most over-the-top ideas mainstream media is dishing out to keep your Christmas "Trump-proof."

1. Cancel Christmas altogether

For one HuffPost contributor, the election of Trump wasn't just a political turning point – it was a holiday deal-breaker. Faced with the knowledge that her husband and his family voted for the former president, she decided to cancel both Thanksgiving and Christmas altogether. No lights, no carols, no awkward family dinners.

"But I will not give thanks and hold hands in a circle with people who voted for a party that wants to take rights away from LGBTQ people," guest contributor Andrea Tate wrote. "I will not pass the turkey to someone who supports people who have signaled they will cause harm to people with disabilities and the elderly. I will not sit by a Christmas tree celebrating the birth of Jesus and sipping eggnog when I know how many people may now find themselves in grave – even deadly – danger because they cannot get the reproductive care they need. I will not unwrap gifts given to me by people who voted for a party that has talked about building internment camps and mass deportation."

2. 'The View' co-host agrees with advice to cut off pro-Trump family at holidays

After a psychologist made headlines last month arguing people should avoid Trump-supporting relatives this holiday season, "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying many people feel "someone voted not only against their families but against them."

Shortly after the election, Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun spoke to MSNBC host Joy Reid about how liberals who are devastated by Trump’s re-election can cope with the news, including separating from loved ones.


There is a push, I think just a societal norm that if somebody is your family, that they are entitled to your time, and I think the answer is absolutely not," Calhoun told the talk show host. "So if you are going to a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you, like what you said, against your livelihood, it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why, you know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted, because it went against my very livelihood and I’m not going to be around you this holiday.’"

3. Use therapy techniques to divert the conversation

If your holiday feast feels more like a political debate than a festive gathering, Time magazine has your back with a list of 11 carefully crafted phrases to defuse family tension.

The top pick? A simple yet stern declaration: "I won’t be talking about politics today." Framed as a way to create a politics-free safe zone, the advice encourages setting boundaries with relatives whose views you loathe – so you can focus on what really matters.

Emphasize that you want to keep the focus on the festivities at hand, and ask for a commitment to avoid polarizing topics. If the conversation still ends up turning in that direction, shut it down: ‘OK, that’s enough of that,’ or, ‘We’re not talking about that here today,’" the Time article states.

4. Take a break and potentially leave the gathering

The Associated Press has a simple solution: take a breather. Whether the conversation veers into a political minefield or Uncle Bob just won’t stop, the AP suggests calmly excusing yourself from the fray. No need for a dramatic exit – just a composed stroll to the kitchen, the porch, or anywhere that isn’t the battlefield of your family table.

Things getting intense? Defuse the situation. Walk away. And it doesn’t have to be in a huff. Sometimes a calm and collected time out is just what you – and the family – might need," the article recommends.



5. ‘Ban the bad actors’

In a searing MSNBC op-ed, writer Amira Barger challenges the notion that family gatherings should always be sacred if they have different beliefs. The author doesn't differentiate between Trump-supporting family members and liberal voters.

have come to realize that being related by blood doesn’t necessarily mean that those gathered will protect you," Barger wrote. "Finding family isn’t always about unity, or forcing yourself to remain in a place that causes you harm. Sometimes, it’s about clarity, and the difficult choices that come with it.

"This fall, after a conversation that spanned more than 1,000 texts in various family group chats, my husband and I made the difficult decision to hold a hard and fast boundary with much of my immediate family, whose stated values and votes made it clear to us that we could not feel comfortable around them."

She adds, "These were decisions we did not make lightly or hastily, but sometimes the best course of action is, in fact, to ban the bad actors."

Jesus and Augustus
God raised up history’s greatest politician at just the time he sent his opposite into the world. I believe that timing was intentional

Gaius Octavius was born in 63 B.C. in Rome. When his maternal great uncle, Julius Caesar, was assassinated for subverting the Roman Republic, the young Octavian, only 18 at the time, became his heir. And though Julius is remembered as a great general and the man who set in motion Rome’s transition from Republic to Empire, it was young Octavian who actually oversaw that transition.

Initially partnering with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, Octavian defeated his great uncle’s assassins, dividing the Republic into three parts. Then Octavian conquered his former allies and assumed sole rule of the Republic in roughly 31 B.C. Over the next three decades, Octavian enacted a series of laws that made Rome an empire. Deifying his great uncle and renaming himself Augustus, Octavian brought down the ancient world’s greatest Republic and rebirthed it an empire. Brilliant and ruthless, Octavian did so in a way that created stability and positioned the realm for growth—creating a 200-year period of unprecedented peace and strength known as the Pax Romana. The unified empire lasted more than 400 years, and its successor empire in the East lasted more than 1,000 more, finally collapsing in 1453 A.D.

Octavian is likely the most successful political leader in history. He was perhaps our world’s richest and most powerful man. And his legacy permeates everything from the modern political structure of Europe to our calendar, where the month of August bears his name. Despite all this, the single most well-known historical passage about Octavian regards him as little more than a footnote. That passage reads:

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. (Luke 2:1-5)

That baby was born to an outcast teenager and her carpenter husband. He came into this world in a dirty stable in an unimportant province without fanfare or notice. Because of a prophecy, he would eventually be hunted by the King of that region—thousands slaughtered in his pursuit—and live as a refugee in a foreign land. When he returned, he would grow up in obscurity, spending more than a decade practicing his father’s blue-collar profession. While the smallest details of Octavian’s life are recorded, that baby’s life would go mostly undocumented except for his last three years of ministry.

Two of the greatest men in history lived at the very same time. They walked very different paths.
At 30, the boy born in Bethlehem would begin preaching to the poor and disenfranchised in small towns and forgotten places. He would begin communing with prostitutes, foreigners, laborers, and the diseased. He would offer healing and hope to those people the world rejected and eventually inspire envy and hatred among his era’s religious and political elite. He would be betrayed by one of his 12 closest friends, then executed on a cross under Octavian’s successor, Tiberius. He would die penniless, homeless, and a criminal, completely unknown to the powerful emperors under whose rule he lived.



After his death, it was those same poor and outcasts who kept his memory alive, even as the oligarchs of the Empire ruled. The murdered man’s followers would be persecuted but mostly overlooked until their numbers grew large enough that emperors like Nero tried to stamp them out. But in their persecution, they flourished, for the poor and hurting will always outnumber the rich and powerful.

For 300 years, this situation persisted until the Roman emperor Constantine declared a tolerance for Christianity in 313 A.D. And even after that becoming the official religion of Rome, that faith flowered best among those "meek" people the murdered man once famously called the inheritors of the world. It was a radical subversion of the traditional morality of power. Nietzsche declared it a "slave morality"—sneeringly at its elevation of the weak over the strong. And almost every authoritarian for 2,000 years has tried to commandeer, corrupt, or destroy that faith.



But today, more than two millennia after Augustus forced that poor family on a journey to Bethlehem, billions of people around the world will sing not to Octavian but to that frail little boy the world simply cannot forget:

"Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring."

Augustus is still remembered. Scholars study him. Students read of him in history. One of my own favorite biographies is Adrian Goldsworthy’s excellent "Augustus: The First Emperor of Rome." His empire, political legacy, and military innovations have shaped the world. Were it not for a baby born during his reign, he might be the most famous man of his time. But God and history had other plans. Augustus is now a member of the supporting cast in the greatest story ever told—the very dates of his birth and death marked in relation to that night in the manger. Octavian’s name, in the popular imagination, is forever connected to a greater king.

I believe that timing was intentional. God raised up history’s greatest politician at just the time he sent his opposite into the world. One praised the strong, the other the gentle. One ruled by force, the other through faith. One sought power, the other sacrifice. One preached loyalty, the other love.

Two billion of us now believe that baby was God made man, a message of hope and healing to all of us who are broken. Jesus is an assurance that God all-powerful isn’t careless, hurtful, and vicious like the gods of Ancient Greece and Rome, but that instead, he cares infinitely for each human heart.



Octavian is now studied on college campuses. Jesus is worshipped in every corner of the world. And at this moment in December, presidents, prime ministers, shopkeepers, and enslaved people alike gather to pray to and sing of a God made flesh whose rule is based not on political power but on love. When executed, Jesus said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." When pressed for a way to live, he said, "A new command I give you: Love one another." His message well-lived would offer hope and peace to the world.

Even for those who don’t believe in the divinity of that Jewish child Jesus, there is a message worth remembering. What is important in the world is so often not what we think it is. True impact is not power wielded violently over others.
Today, while there are many good people, there are no shortage of those who would do anything for power. They may not be as talented as Octavian or as successful, but they will clamor for riches, fame, and adoration. Many of them will hurt or kill others to get there. Some will enslave others. And some of those people will be "successful" for a time. They will become dictators and presidents, CEOs or celebrities. And they will strive to be worshipped. But like Augustus, they and the morality they embrace will ultimately fade into history. And what will supplant them will be the stories of those who sought not power but compassion, not rule but liberation.



That is the message of Christmas. For believers, it’s a reverent time of reflection for that special moment in history when the all-powerful God of the universe humbled himself to restore our relationship with Him. For all people, even those who haven’t come to that belief, it is an inspiring historical narrative. Two of the greatest men in history lived at the very same time. They walked very different paths. And contemporary observers would have failed to identify which of the two was truly great.


Merry Christmas to all. May this redemptive message be the light of the world, hope for the hopeless, and an encouragement to every human heart.

This is an amazing testimony.  

https://youtu.be/n49cetqPe58?si=YCVvxVH0P3kvxCw0

Husbands who abused adopted sons in 'house of horrors' slapped with massive prison sentences
Georgia couple William and Zachary Zulock recorded and shared the sexual abuse inflicted on their two adopted sons with others

A Georgia couple that pleaded guilty in August to sexually abusing their two adopted sons will now spend 100 years in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office.

William Zulock pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of incest and two counts of sexual exploitation of children. His husband, Zachary Zulock, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of incest, two counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual exploitation of children and two counts of pandering to a person under 18.

"Those involved with the investigation and prosecution of this case will never forget what they had to see and hear in this case," District Attorney Randy McGinley said in a Monday statement. "These two Defendants truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else. However, the depth of the Defendants’ depravity, which is as deep as it gets, is not greater than the resolve of those [who] fought for justice and the strength of the victims in this case."

McGinley said the "resolve" of the two young victims, who were in third and fourth grade at the time of the Zulocks' arrest, "over the last two years is truly inspiring."



The Zulocks initially came under investigation after Georgia authorities received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reporting suspected homemade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) uploaded to a Google account with an IP address in Walton County. Upon further investigation, deputies with the Walton County Sheriff's Office learned that the Zulocks lived with the victims who appeared in the CSAM.

Authorities interviewed the Zulocks on July 22, 2022, and they both admitted to sexually abusing their adopted sons over a period of time, according to the DA's office.



Investigators later collected electronic evidence including surveillance cameras from inside the house showing multiple instances of the defendants "committing sexual abuse in different parts of the house," the DA's office said in a Monday press release. Other electronic evidence included cell phones containing graphic images, videos, text messages and social media messages.




I am grateful for the hard work of so many to obtain an appropriate outcome in this case," McGinley said. "The hard work of law enforcement put an end to the abuse suffered by the victims and this resolution will help the victims continue their process of healing. William and Zachary Zulock will now spend 100 years in prison without parole. This all but guarantees that the victims will not have to worry as they grow older about their abusers being free."

McGinley further stressed the importance of adopting children in need but added that "anyone who does so and then abuses those children deserves extremely harsh consequences and decades in prison."

The sentence imposed not only appropriately punishes these Defendants for their repeated selfish actions but also sends the message to the public that such actions will never be taken lightly," McGinley said in his statement.

Two other men, Hunter Clay Lawless and Luis Armando Vizcarro-Sanchez, were prosecuted and sentenced to prison after agreeing to testify against the Zulocks. Lawless admitted to receiving CSAM from Zachary Zulock and pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children. Vizcarro-Sanchez pleaded guilty to pandering to a person under 18 and computer theft.

I can't read it.



   

Merry Christmas all!! Have a wonderful couple of days with your friends and family!

Getting well now and drove today my bmw to drug store(what else) to liquor store, and tire dealer to inflate my tires to right psi

Got woodford reserve double barrel oak whiskey; limonchello, rum, flavored svedka vodka.  Using freezer rocks to chill the shot glasses

Already had case christmas ale and red wine

Warming up the vape next for nice batch of cannabis tonight

Let me start by saying that my wife does all the Christmas shopping in our house.  All I do is buy for her and my dad.  I shop on Christmas Eve.  Sue me.     Anyway, my dad just recently turned 90.  I am all out of ideas.  I got nothing.  Someone toss out a gift idea, please.  Don't be insulted if I don't use it, but I'm just looking for ideas here.  

In the recent past I've gotten him coffee table books on WWII, the Apollo missions, etc...  

Anyway, he's not a big reader (I get it honestly), he's well past his golfing and fishing days.  He is a big Indians fan though.  

Thoughts/ideas?  I'm flat out of gas here.