Christmas eve
Pre-Christmas running about this morning, a brief kick in the teeth with two Skelly rejections, and then... Relax. Lorraine stopped by, then down to the Basketmakers to meet Sam, Beth and Mark. Cheery scene in the pub, and particularly nice for Lorraine as her children are not with her on Christmas day this year.
Then from there home to smarten up a smidge then off up to Anton and Anna's house to collect them and the children, plus Anne and Brian to go off to Church for the children's service. The place packed and the whole thing utterly chaotic. Father Robert barely able to speak due to a terrible throat, the child hordes chattering and weaseling through legs and under pews. One intrepid toddler even ascending the pulpit.
The microphone also kept cutting out on Father Robert, and another newly ordained man, and apparently ex-skinhead, jumped up and using an arm puppet called Scruffy (a talking dog) and another unpleasant homunculus called Gordon told a story whose moral was that Mary and Joseph were poor ordinary people not rich privileged ones. Klaudia who had been sitting on my lap and then Lorraine's explained to Lorraine that the puppets were not real, and that there was someone working them.
Then children prettily mobbing with candles to the altar, a bark through Away in a Manger, and O Little Town of Bethlehem and some unknown calypso carol (which lodged in my brain all night) before we were all released back into the wild. Brian and I reflecting that there is nothing like being in church to you want a drink.
Home to Anton and Anna's house, down the street Klaudia's school is in. The houses form an advent calendar, with numbers and lit scenes in their front windows. After the children off to bed, and we ate a lovely meal which Anne had cooked, and we ate and drank and quite literally made merry till late. A happy float down the hill to bed.
Pre-Christmas running about this morning, a brief kick in the teeth with two Skelly rejections, and then... Relax. Lorraine stopped by, then down to the Basketmakers to meet Sam, Beth and Mark. Cheery scene in the pub, and particularly nice for Lorraine as her children are not with her on Christmas day this year.
Then from there home to smarten up a smidge then off up to Anton and Anna's house to collect them and the children, plus Anne and Brian to go off to Church for the children's service. The place packed and the whole thing utterly chaotic. Father Robert barely able to speak due to a terrible throat, the child hordes chattering and weaseling through legs and under pews. One intrepid toddler even ascending the pulpit.
The microphone also kept cutting out on Father Robert, and another newly ordained man, and apparently ex-skinhead, jumped up and using an arm puppet called Scruffy (a talking dog) and another unpleasant homunculus called Gordon told a story whose moral was that Mary and Joseph were poor ordinary people not rich privileged ones. Klaudia who had been sitting on my lap and then Lorraine's explained to Lorraine that the puppets were not real, and that there was someone working them.
Then children prettily mobbing with candles to the altar, a bark through Away in a Manger, and O Little Town of Bethlehem and some unknown calypso carol (which lodged in my brain all night) before we were all released back into the wild. Brian and I reflecting that there is nothing like being in church to you want a drink.
Home to Anton and Anna's house, down the street Klaudia's school is in. The houses form an advent calendar, with numbers and lit scenes in their front windows. After the children off to bed, and we ate a lovely meal which Anne had cooked, and we ate and drank and quite literally made merry till late. A happy float down the hill to bed.
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