Happy birthday to me!
Had a really nice Christmas!
Our Christmas Eve service was EXCELLENT. (I sing with my parents' church choir for holidays.) There was a new arrangement of "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" by a member of the congregation, which we were all super-skeptical about, but it was really gorgeous in the end. She really brought out the darkness in the song and then pulled it back out. It's a Longfellow poem from the Civil War -- here are the last two verses:
And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
It was really beautiful.
Before that, we had our big family celebration, which was very nice. My cousin and her husband were late, because they just took the train up that day, but so good to see them, and also to hear that he's going to be an ambassador to the US! Incredible.
Yesterday, it was mostly just us four, with the traditional visit from some family friends. Dinner was delicious -- turkey, stuffing, assorted roasted vegetables, with various leftovers for dessert, which felt fancy: a plate with a couple of kinds of cookies, a couple of kinds of nice candy, cakepops my over-achieving cousin made, etc. So nice!
Now I need to get up and at em, to go to The Revels for my birthday. Excellent. I'm just sad I have to work tomorrow -- why did I not just take this whole week off???
Hope you have all had lovely weekends, whatever you're doing.
This entry was originally posted at http://jesseh.dreamwidth.org/697207.html, where there are
comments. Comment either place.
Our Christmas Eve service was EXCELLENT. (I sing with my parents' church choir for holidays.) There was a new arrangement of "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" by a member of the congregation, which we were all super-skeptical about, but it was really gorgeous in the end. She really brought out the darkness in the song and then pulled it back out. It's a Longfellow poem from the Civil War -- here are the last two verses:
And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
It was really beautiful.
Before that, we had our big family celebration, which was very nice. My cousin and her husband were late, because they just took the train up that day, but so good to see them, and also to hear that he's going to be an ambassador to the US! Incredible.
Yesterday, it was mostly just us four, with the traditional visit from some family friends. Dinner was delicious -- turkey, stuffing, assorted roasted vegetables, with various leftovers for dessert, which felt fancy: a plate with a couple of kinds of cookies, a couple of kinds of nice candy, cakepops my over-achieving cousin made, etc. So nice!
Now I need to get up and at em, to go to The Revels for my birthday. Excellent. I'm just sad I have to work tomorrow -- why did I not just take this whole week off???
Hope you have all had lovely weekends, whatever you're doing.
This entry was originally posted at http://jesseh.dreamwidth.org/697207.html, where there are
comments. Comment either place.