Friday 12th December - My tomorrrow self will be so pleased with me.

 Fully supported by a pot of tea and suitable music playing, I persuaded myself to make a start on the Christmas Cards. This is an old box, one ones inside are a mish-mash of cards left over from previous years, and quite a few salvaged from my father's flat. Waste not want not...

I've discovered it's not going to be as much of a task as I feared; four pages of names and addresses, means about 80 cards, around 10 to be emails, about 15 to be hand delivered locally. I cracked on and gor halfway down the second page. So far so good; the target is to get them done ready to post on Monday. More tea, more music, and possibly more cards required!

I am grateful to 'Fat Dormouse' for sharing this link with me in the comments to yesterday's post;

It's a clip from 'Song of Praise', where Kate Rusby talks about the tradition of Pub Carols in the North, and sings one of the carols.

It reminds me of a Christmas a long time ago now when our Canadian friends were over in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We went for a celebratory meal at a local traditional pub in a very old building near to where we live. To our great joy, the carol singers came in, and started singing all the old favourites, including, of course, The Sussex Carol. Everyone in the pub joined in, even visitors like ourselves were welcome at this village event. It was such a joyous end to the evening.

I remember my friend and I had a solo line in the Twelve Days of Christmas - we had to keep our wits about us to remember to come in!

 I've chosen a Maddy Prior/Carnival Band recording again - like the Kate Rusby 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night' above these carols are meant for dancing. The choirs of Kings College etc just don't have that feel!