December 31 - New Year's Eve

Roman numerals:
M = 1000
MM = 2000
X = 10
I = 1
MMXI = 2000 + 10 + 1 = 2011


New Year's Eve is not a holiday, but a lot of people leave work at noon.
Some people go to parties and count down the New Year at midnight.

left-to-right

In English, we look at pictures from left-to-right:

right-to-left

In Japanese, we look at pictures from right-to-left.

Nativity scene

At Christmas, we send Christmas cards to our friends.

A picture or statue of the birth of Jesus is called a "nativity scene".

"Natus" is the Latin word for 'birth'.

In a hospital, the 'natal clinic' is the place for having babies.

'prenatal' means 'before birth' or 'pregnancy'.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day, December 26, is a statutory holiday in England and Canada, but not the U.S.
No one know why it's called "Boxing Day".
There are Boxing Day sales in a lot of stores, but they are very crowded.
The stores are supposed to be closed by law, but a lot of stores seem to ignore the law.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 25 is Christmas.
December 24, Christmas Eve, is not a statutory holiday, but people usually leave work at noon (unless they are computer workers).

my friend's dogs

expression of the day: bad hair day

this means that you wake up and your head is messed up; you try to comb it, but it won't go the right way.
If it's a bad hair day, you should wear a hat.

expression

'Whatever goes around, comes around.'

means: if you do good (or bad) to someone, then good (or bad) will happen to you.

Winter Solistice

December 21 is the official beginning of winter and also it is the winter solistice - the shortest day of the year.

This is a picture of a Christmas wreath. Wreaths used to be made from a plant called holly, but I don't think it grows in Canada, only England. Nowadays wreaths are made of plastic :)

expression

It rolled off his back like water off the back of a duck.

means

It didn't bother him.

snow

Thursday

tomorrow is another day

FIRST SNOW

FORECAST: SNOW FLURRIES ALL THIS WEEK

MERRY XMAS

WE HATE SNOW BECAUSE IT MAKES IT HARD TO DRIVE :(

cold feet

Charlie Brown wants to talk to the little red-haired girl, but he gets cold feet.

or:

He has cold feet.

tit for tat

means 'you do the same thing to someone as they do to you'.

expression of the day

"dog's breakfast" means "a mess".

For example: "My room looks like a dog's breakfast."