Yesterday's post never got further than just the title - I'm not sure what happened - I must have been distracted and then forgotten...
But today - We've made it all the way to Christmas Eve!
On Tuesday I wasn't too sure we'd clear the table; it still looked like this;
Improved, but a long way to go.
This morning, however, not only was it mostly clear, but I was able to get out the Christmas tablecloth, faded now after perhaps twenty years since my mother made it for is one year;
We even have a few early snowdrops for Christmas. I watch for them every year; sometimes there are only one or two barely open buds. This year is a bumper year, I've never seen so many in flower before Christmas Day.
The little Advent calendar house is complete
and the amaryllis is astonishing. I was standing staring at it, wondering where all that green stalk had come from. A few weeks ago it was a dry bulb pushed into some compost. Since then I've merely watered it a couple of times, and from somewhere it has grown those long stalks, and large buds. I've found a larger, heavier pot to stand it in as it looked liable to topple over any day now.
I wrapped the last few presents for friends, and we delivered them after lunch. For years now we've had salmon for our Christmas Eve meal, and this year was no different. I roasted onions, peppers, tomatoes and sliced potatoes in the oven for 30 minutes, turning them half way through, and then added the salmon fillets for another 10 minutes. So easy, and very good!
We've watched Carols from Kings - if you missed it, find a quiet hour and catch up on iplayer or BBCSounds. It was beautiful.
It's heading for bedtime now. I wish you all the best for Christmas Day, however you are spending it, with family and friends, or on your own.
Here's the choir of Trinity College Cambridge singing Balulow from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols
The boxes of Christmas decorations have been taken back upstairs, and what hasn't been done won't be done now. Today's main efforts were stringing all the cards around the room at ceiling height,
and hanging baubles on the rose bush outside. (Picture tomorrow). Not much left to do - the last presents to wrap and deliver to local friends and, oh, yes, the other half of the dining room table...
I would very much like to get this sorted in time for Christmas... we've kind of ignored it for about a year. I'm sure it is full of forgotten treasures though, so could be quite fun (typing in the text doesn't quite convey my dubious tone of voice).
Meanwhile here is the last of the Advent O antiphons, the one for 23rd December. I suppose the night-time services on Christmas Eve were considered to be part of Christmas, rather in the way the Midnight Communion service on Christmas Eve was always a part of Christmas Day, more important in some ways that the Christmas Day service.
O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
expectatio Gentium,et Salvator earum:
veni ad savandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.
O Emmanuel,
our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.
The text of these antiphons is very familiar to us from the Advent hymn 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' .
Here is the beautiful poem 'Love came down at Christmas' written by Christina Rossetti, sung to the Irish melody Gartan by by Chet Valley Churches;
I remember reading the famous 'Love' chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, at my goddaughter's wedding;
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
At my cousin's wedding some years earlier, they had the same reading, and the sermon is one of the few I remember. The preacher suggested you replace the word 'Love' with 'God'.
Ah, lovely.
Then he suggested you replace the word 'Love' in the middle section with 'I';
I am patient, I am kind, and so on.
Ah, rather more challenging. I took this as a statement of intent, and revisit this message from time to time.
Your Content13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain
More present wrapping today, as we are meeting family at the farm shop café to swap Christmas presents. We won't open them then and there, but carry them off to put them under our own trees as home.
BB added some more baubles to the tree while I was cooking bubble and squeak and scrambled eggs for supper. The cards are waiting to be strung up round the room in a day or so.
I've written all the ones for the mail, now there are just some friends and neighbours to do for delivering by hand.
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This is the antiphon for tomorrow, Saturday 20th December;
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Isreal,
qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David and the scepter of the House of Israel,
who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens.
O come and bring out the captive from the prison-house, him who sits in the in darkness and in the shadow of death.
I must have thrown all the small pieces of tinsel away last year - they do get increasingly tatty as the years go by. So this year I gathered the remaining long strands of silver tinsel, and cut them to length with the kitchen scissors. What a mess! You can see snips of tinsel all over the floor. But according to my mother's instructions the tinsel has to lie along the branches like snow, which means having longer and shorter lengths. Being snow, all the tinsel is silver, although some looks gold in the light.
It has been tipping it down with rain all day, but I wasn't going to go outside to check how the tree looks. Luckily BB had to go out, so he stood and directed me where to put the last few pieces.
.....
The little birds found the bird feeders yesterday and were making a occasional timid forays back and forth. Today, in spite of the rain and the cold blustery wind they were busy all day, some at the seeds, some at the peanuts. The squirrel hasn't appeared yet, so the nuts are lasting quite well at the moment.
Ang over at Tracing Rainbows posted a video on how to make a wreath by stabbing greenery into a large potato. I spotted a link at the end of the video for discovering more crafts. In particular I fancy having a go at making apple and peanut butter bird feeders.
They seem to be apple slices with the core cut out and a string threaded through. The bottom is smeared with peanut butter on both sides, and then dipped into birdseed. I reckon I can cope with that!
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Antiphon for 19th December
O Root of Jesse,
standing as a sign among the peoples;
