Jon Cook; Millie Mutka, Zima family friends Stefan Sladek, Dave Butschli, Mick, Steven and Marilyn Hummel; Gregory Bowens; Laurie Nelson; Amber Ross’s daughter Linda; Randy & Diane Niemczyk’s niece Sarah Joda, and their dear friend Denise Hazel; Valeria Hesselberg; Chris Markussen; Anne Verona’s sister/brother-in-law Pat & Woody Woodworth; Bobbie Schmidt’s brother William and her step-daughter Cheryl; Dawn Gonitzke’s brother Scott Premo; Pastor Grant’s friends Jane Trasosech and Wendie Libert; the Eberts friends Patricia Kulzick and John Oliver; the Waggoner’s sister-in-law Cheryl Busse; Karen Engels’ niece Lisa and friends Bob and Dawn and Gail Wogsland; Ann Carlson’s people Carolina, Dwight, Staci, Curt, and Troy; and the people of Israel, Russia, Palestine and Ukraine. Those continuing to restore their communities after devastating floods around the world. The community of Madison. Everyone traveling to & fro over the holidays – safe travels.
PRAYER LIST PROCEDURE – Submit your prayer requests to the office in writing, by phone, by email or in person. If requesting prayers for someone other than yourself or an immediate family member, please obtain permission – unless the circumstances are public in nature.
WORSHIP ON FACEBOOK – Live on Facebook on Sundays at 9:00 am and posted for later viewing.
GUESTS – if you are visiting us today, please sign our book at the entrance to the sanctuary.
ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE BULLETIN – if you want to get announcements in the bulletin, please get your information to the Front Office Wednesday before noon.
LEFTOVER COOKIE SUNDAY – is today! This is our way of helping you clear your house of Christmas treats after the visiting hordes have left. We are here to help. Bring your calories to church and we will do our best to send you home with an empty plate. It is the Lutheran way.
PROTECT YOUR PEACE – when we share the peace at Prince of Peace – feel free to wave the peace sign; fist bump or avoid any sort of contact at all! We know you still share the love but want to protect YOUR peace and not get any cooties. There are mini-bottles of hand sanitizer in the Narthex.
OH ENDOWMENT TREE! OH ENDOWMENT TREE! You are invited to make a donation to our endowment fund. In the past, the endowment fund has contributed to –Caritas, Tri-County Council on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, Praise in the Pines, Northwoods Shares, Worship in the Wild, Sunshine for Humanity & more! All donations are tax-deductible and can be included in your 2024 taxes if received at the church by end of day on 12/31/24.
NEW! MARK YOUR CALENDARS! PRINCE OF PEACE WOMEN’S CHRISTMAS!
There are only TEN spots left to join us at our first ever Women’s Christmas. Sign up to join us on Sunday, Jan 12th from 5 to 8 pm for a gourmet meal prepared & served by the men of Prince of Peace. The cost of the dinner and special program is $40. Sign up sheet is in the Narthex or contact Ann in the Front Office.
FLAT LUTHER – Flat Luther has been traveling! Check out his adventures on the window to the Fellowship Hall! More adventures have been documented. AND we now have several Flat Luthers available to go out in the world.
COLLECTING HATS & GLOVES! – there is a tree in the Narthex. It is there to collect hats and gloves for the upcoming winter for people/children in our community. Items collected are currently designated for our local school district.
FUN FACTS: You only breathe through one nostril at a time. It is called the nasal cycle.
NOTES: – My fun facts were extremely limited this week on the physical bulletin due to space. That was the best one I could come up with on short notice before the end of the day. Since I have more space on the interwebs, I will share with you the rest of the story – at the end of this. It is pretty interesting, but full of a lot of jargon.
Our Christmas Eve service was spectacular! The choir knocked it out of the park. And wow – talk about a crowd. Pastor Grant had cookies on stand by to be blessed as communion wafers if need be. Fortunately our crew was on top of their game and had enough for all.
If you haven’t had a chance to experience the sleigh rides offered in Eagle River – I have to recommend it. Going on a sleigh ride in December has become one of our traditions. It is a pleasant way to enhance your calm right before the holidays. We have only gone in the evening – but the rides begin at 10 am and the last ride out is at 7 pm. Something about enjoying a non-motorized ride, the creak of the harness and gentle thud of the horses hooves makes a deep sigh of contentment come out of me.
A ‘small world’ incident happened on the sleigh ride this year. We were riding in about the middle of the sled (approximately 20 people on board). I heard someone at the back of the sled talk about “Jeff Wright”. A lady sitting closer to us piped up about how she worked with Jeff Wright and he was running for superintendent. They were discussing how great Jeff is and I jumped into the conversation letting them know if they thought Jeff was great – they should meet his parents – Tim and Betty Wright! One lady had and agreed with me.
So that isn’t the end of the story. I let Betty know about the interaction. The next morning she receives a note from her son – he forwarded her a note HE had received from the lady who worked with him – letting him know about meeting (me) on the sleigh ride and the comment I had made about his parents.
Funny stuff. Out of all of the people on the sleigh – I think Burt and I were the only full-time Eagle River people – so that made it a bit more “small world”.
ELCA wrote a bit about shining your light this past week. I posted it on our FaceBook page. We are on the upside after the solstice. Still a ways to go before our days are significantly longer – but don’t let that stop you from shining your light.
[All of the pics are from the sleigh ride. And yes, I forgot to bring Flat Luther with me. Jan 1st is the last day for a sleigh ride. If the snow melts – they use wagons]
The following is the scientific/medical stuff regarding the nasal cycle.
The nasal cycle is the subconscious alternating partial congestion and decongestion of the nasal cavities in humans and other animals. This results in greater airflow through one nostril with periodic alternation between the nostrils. It is a physiological congestion of the nasal conchae, also called the nasal turbinates (curled bony projections within the nasal cavities), due to selective activation of one half of the autonomic nervous system by the hypothalamus. It should not be confused with pathological nasal congestion.
In the modern western literature, it was first described by the German physician Richard Kayser in 1895.
In 1927, Heetderks described the alternating turgescence of the inferior turbinates in 80% of a normal population. According to Heetderks, the cycle is the result of alternating congestion and decongestion of the nasal conchae or turbinates, predominantly the inferior turbinates, which are by far the largest of the turbinates in each nasal fossa. Turbinates consist of bony projections covered by erectile tissue, much like the tissues of the penis and clitoris. The turbinates in one fossa fill up with blood while the opposite turbinates decongest by shunting blood away. This cycle, which is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, has a mean duration of two and a half hours but varies widely with age, body-posture, and other conditions. He further observed and documented that the turbinates in the dependent nasal fossa fill when the patient is lying down. The nasal cycle is an alternation in both time and between left and right sides, with the total resistance in the nose remaining constant. The asymmetric airflow may have some benefit to overall olfactory sensitivity.
It is possible that the nasal cycle may exacerbate the nasal congestion caused by the common cold, as the lack of motility of the cilia in one half of the nose may lead to an uncomfortable sensation of not being able to shift mucus by blowing the nose.
It has been shown that the cilia of the congested side suspend their motility until that side decongests. Thus the cycle ensures that one side of the nose is always moist, to facilitate humidification, which is one of the three functions of the nose, the other two being filtration and warming of inspired air prior to its entering the lungs.
Some odor chemicals bind with olfactory receptors easily, even under conditions of high airflow, and other odors need more time, under low airflow conditions, to bind with receptors. With high airflow on one side and low airflow on the other side, the olfactory center detects a greater range of smells.
