(no subject)
Everything is too busy and moving too fast and I've reached the stage where if I feel a brief moment of achievement it is IMMEDIATELY followed by panic because I must have forgotten something /o\
However I think I've identified a day I can take off to do some Christmas shopping and the things to go in cards this year have been dispatched to me so I can actually start thinking about that.
Tomorrow is my first Christmas party of the year and it's actually 2 for 1 becausw it's our Volunteer Christmas Party at work followed by the work Christmas meal at which I have to be quite sensible because Sunday involves four services which is possibly a record even for me (singing at one, serving at the next, then Christingle with the Rainbows and then I'm standing in for one of our Wardens at Evensong).
Below is the reading my family had yesterday for our Advent Wreath. I don't know if it's as funny if you're not in a state of low level panic but I think it probably is <3
(Extract from) All Things Considered by G.K. Chesterton
There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is.
Up to a certain specific instant you are feeling ordinary and sad; for it is only Wednesday. At the next moment your heart leaps up and your soul and body dance together like lovers; for in one burst and blaze it has become Thursday. I am assuming (of course) that you are a worshipper of Thor, and that you celebrate his day once a week, possibly with human sacrifice.
If, on the other hand, you are a modern Christian Englishman, you hail (of course) with the same explosion of gaiety the appearance of the English Sunday. But I say that whatever the day is that is to you festive or symbolic, it is essential that there should be a quite clear black line between it and the time going before. And all the old wholesome customs in connection with Christmas were to the effect that one should not touch or see or know or speak of something before the actual coming of Christmas Day.
Thus, for instance, children were never given their presents until the actual coming of the appointed hour. The presents were kept tied up in brown-paper parcels, out of which an arm of a doll or the leg of a donkey sometimes accidentally stuck.
I wish this principle were adopted in respect of modern Christmas ceremonies and publications. Especially it ought to be observed in connection with what are called the Christmas numbers of magazines. The editors of the magazines bring out their Christmas numbers so long before the time that the reader is more likely to be still lamenting for the turkey of last year than to have seriously settled down to a solid anticipation of the turkey which is to come.
Christmas numbers of magazines ought to be tied up in brown paper and kept for Christmas Day. On consideration, I should favour the editors being tied up in brown paper. Whether the leg or arm of an editor should ever be allowed to protrude I leave to individual choice.
However I think I've identified a day I can take off to do some Christmas shopping and the things to go in cards this year have been dispatched to me so I can actually start thinking about that.
Tomorrow is my first Christmas party of the year and it's actually 2 for 1 becausw it's our Volunteer Christmas Party at work followed by the work Christmas meal at which I have to be quite sensible because Sunday involves four services which is possibly a record even for me (singing at one, serving at the next, then Christingle with the Rainbows and then I'm standing in for one of our Wardens at Evensong).
Below is the reading my family had yesterday for our Advent Wreath. I don't know if it's as funny if you're not in a state of low level panic but I think it probably is <3
(Extract from) All Things Considered by G.K. Chesterton
There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is.
Up to a certain specific instant you are feeling ordinary and sad; for it is only Wednesday. At the next moment your heart leaps up and your soul and body dance together like lovers; for in one burst and blaze it has become Thursday. I am assuming (of course) that you are a worshipper of Thor, and that you celebrate his day once a week, possibly with human sacrifice.
If, on the other hand, you are a modern Christian Englishman, you hail (of course) with the same explosion of gaiety the appearance of the English Sunday. But I say that whatever the day is that is to you festive or symbolic, it is essential that there should be a quite clear black line between it and the time going before. And all the old wholesome customs in connection with Christmas were to the effect that one should not touch or see or know or speak of something before the actual coming of Christmas Day.
Thus, for instance, children were never given their presents until the actual coming of the appointed hour. The presents were kept tied up in brown-paper parcels, out of which an arm of a doll or the leg of a donkey sometimes accidentally stuck.
I wish this principle were adopted in respect of modern Christmas ceremonies and publications. Especially it ought to be observed in connection with what are called the Christmas numbers of magazines. The editors of the magazines bring out their Christmas numbers so long before the time that the reader is more likely to be still lamenting for the turkey of last year than to have seriously settled down to a solid anticipation of the turkey which is to come.
Christmas numbers of magazines ought to be tied up in brown paper and kept for Christmas Day. On consideration, I should favour the editors being tied up in brown paper. Whether the leg or arm of an editor should ever be allowed to protrude I leave to individual choice.