• Music: Peter, Paul & Mary - Children Go Where I Send Thee

Advent 2011: Wishing you a very Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I had a very pleasant if uneventful day; I drove down to Illinois and had Christmas dinner with my grandmother and my dad and stepmother. This is essentially the same thing I did last year, so I'll just copy-and-paste: "The retirement community in which she lives always puts on a nice spread for holidays, and this was no exception." This year we had roast beef--very tender and moist, and not a speck of fat to be seen--pineapple-glazed ham, breaded fried shrimp--big ones that had been straightened out, for some reason--baked apples, green beans, corn, green salad, fruit salad…and I feel like I'm forgetting something. (ETA: and scalloped potatoes. Or potatoes au gratin, perhaps; I'm not entirely clear on difference. )They had various kinds of desserts available; I had a pumpkin cheesecake. All of it was very tasty. After dinner, we spent time up in Grandma's apartment chatting, and then it was back home, arriving in plenty of time to see the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was crazy, but in a good way. All in all, a relaxing Christmas day…

…which was nice because as is often the case, Christmas Eve night was a little hectic. I went to three, count 'em, three Christmas Eve services. First up was Christ Presbyterian's family service. It wasn't quite fun as last year's (for the adults, at least; the kids seemed to enjoy themselves) but it was nice nonetheless. A few hours later I was back for the candlelight lessons and carols service. For part of it, anyway. I had to leave about halfway through to drive across town to Lake Edge United Church of Christ, for another candlelight lessons and carols service. That may sound a little strange, but hey, you ought to know by now that I'm a strange guy. And I had a good reason! Last year, Christ Presbyterian choir sang for our candlelight service, but this year there were too many people planning to be out of town, so the director decided the choir wouldn't sing for the service. But I love singing on Christmas Eve, so I got in touch with the choir director at Lake Edge, whom I had met this summer when I sang in the Madison Summer Choir, and asked if he had room for a spare tenor on Christmas Eve. He did, hence my trip across town. Let me tell you, Lake Edge puts on a nice Christmas Eve service. Our anthem was an arrangement of the Petter, Paul, and Mary song "The Magi." (You'll need Spotify to use that link.)

In between the first two services, I went home and watched all three Community Christmas episodes and the 1967 Dragnet episode "The Christmas Story," which is in its way is just as funny as the Community episodes. Bear in mind as you watch that it was written by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter.

Anyway! Here's a Christmas card--hand-made, no less!--sent by my LiveJournal pal hobbituk. The juxtaposition between the secular message on the outside and the religious one inside is rather amusing, I think.




Private collection

Speaking of cards from online friends, the other day I got a card in the mail. I tweeted about it:

     22 Dec at 21:22
     "The [Family]? Who the hell are the [Family]?"

     22 Dec at 21:22
     "Near where I used to live...someone from UUS I knew by a maiden name?"

     22 Dec at 21:23
     "I don't know ANY of these people! What is this? [Male], Judy, and ... OH! JUDY!"

As in judykim97, who a few days earlier had offered to send cards to anyone who wanted one. I sent her a PM asking for one…and promptly forgot having done so. My brain are smart.