ozarque (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ozarque) wrote,@ 2007-11-30 08:24:00 |
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Personal note; holiday entanglement...
I am entangled in the holidays today and tomorrow -- and "entangled" is truly the right word. Last night the lights went up on the front of our underground house .... I love those lights, and am always tempted to leave them up all year round, but have so far managed to resist the temptation. Today the Christmas tree will be assembled -- as opposed to being cut down (or dug up) and hauled back to the house in the traditional fashion -- and will have its lights added, and tomorrow I will be trimming it. All of this ordinarily gets done on December 1st, but this year George decided to start early and never mind tradition, and our front porch is now piled with boxes of tree-parts and tree-lights and ornaments and centerpiece-makings and celebration-makings, and more, all of which has to be put in order. Plus, there is cleaning to do -- I can't in good conscience trim a Christmas tree that's standing in a room full of dust and detritus -- and there's laundry to do and baking to do, and a calendar to do.
I am going to be very tired by the end of today, and very tired again by the end of tomorrow, but I am also going to be very happy. I do understand why a real Christmas tree is in all but one way entirely superior to an artificial one; I really do. That one exception is the way an artificial Christmas tree allows me to indulge myself shamelessly and revel in Christmas decorations for the entire month of December every year. Some people have weaknesses like over-gambling and over-eating and over-drinking and over-spending; my weakness [well, one of many!] is over-Christmasing. It's a good thing there's a cultural limit on the span of Christmas, because I have no self-discipline about it whatsoever.
I have all my Christmas gifts done -- not wrapped yet, but all either actually finished (that's the handmade ones) or purchased, or at least ordered and an order confirmation in hand. I have all but three of my Christmas cards signed and in their envelopes and addressed. I plan to make the Christmas fruitcake very shortly. [Recipe at http://ozarque.livejournal.com/180281.h
What I haven't done yet is write a new Christmas poem, although I have one perking and hope to be able to post it soon; I'm therefore going to re-post here the one I posted last year, in case some of you haven't seen it [which would be a reasonable assumption], plus re-posting one of my filk carols from the past on precisely the same basis. Here they both are, with my best wishes.
Holiday Blessing
To all you shepherds abiding in your fields,
watching over your flocks by night, and also by day
(whether your field be grass or anthropology,
oats or olives or medieval economics), I say:
May your flocks all thrive;
may your grass grow lush and green;
may joy follow you amiably and radiantly from place to place;
and may all your hypotheses be plausible.
Amen.
Blessing Song
[Tune -- "As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night"]
From every land grim tidings come, and bid us all beware;
but I would ask you for this day to lay aside despair,
to lay aside despair.
I saw a flower strange to me a-blooming in the snow;
I saw a star I could not name, in a sky I did not know,
a sky I did not know.
The flower shaped a single word, the star a single song;
"There are endless worlds beyond you now where you shall yet belong,
where you shall yet belong!"
So fear ye not for plague or war, and fear ye not the storm;
this holy time shall wrap you round and keep you from all harm,
and keep you from all harm.
Oh, blessings on your going forth, and on your coming home;
and blessed be where'er you bide, and everywhere you roam,
and everywhere you roam.
I am entangled in the holidays today and tomorrow -- and "entangled" is truly the right word. Last night the lights went up on the front of our underground house .... I love those lights, and am always tempted to leave them up all year round, but have so far managed to resist the temptation. Today the Christmas tree will be assembled -- as opposed to being cut down (or dug up) and hauled back to the house in the traditional fashion -- and will have its lights added, and tomorrow I will be trimming it. All of this ordinarily gets done on December 1st, but this year George decided to start early and never mind tradition, and our front porch is now piled with boxes of tree-parts and tree-lights and ornaments and centerpiece-makings and celebration-makings, and more, all of which has to be put in order. Plus, there is cleaning to do -- I can't in good conscience trim a Christmas tree that's standing in a room full of dust and detritus -- and there's laundry to do and baking to do, and a calendar to do.
I am going to be very tired by the end of today, and very tired again by the end of tomorrow, but I am also going to be very happy. I do understand why a real Christmas tree is in all but one way entirely superior to an artificial one; I really do. That one exception is the way an artificial Christmas tree allows me to indulge myself shamelessly and revel in Christmas decorations for the entire month of December every year. Some people have weaknesses like over-gambling and over-eating and over-drinking and over-spending; my weakness [well, one of many!] is over-Christmasing. It's a good thing there's a cultural limit on the span of Christmas, because I have no self-discipline about it whatsoever.
I have all my Christmas gifts done -- not wrapped yet, but all either actually finished (that's the handmade ones) or purchased, or at least ordered and an order confirmation in hand. I have all but three of my Christmas cards signed and in their envelopes and addressed. I plan to make the Christmas fruitcake very shortly. [Recipe at http://ozarque.livejournal.com/180281.h
What I haven't done yet is write a new Christmas poem, although I have one perking and hope to be able to post it soon; I'm therefore going to re-post here the one I posted last year, in case some of you haven't seen it [which would be a reasonable assumption], plus re-posting one of my filk carols from the past on precisely the same basis. Here they both are, with my best wishes.
Holiday Blessing
To all you shepherds abiding in your fields,
watching over your flocks by night, and also by day
(whether your field be grass or anthropology,
oats or olives or medieval economics), I say:
May your flocks all thrive;
may your grass grow lush and green;
may joy follow you amiably and radiantly from place to place;
and may all your hypotheses be plausible.
Amen.
Blessing Song
[Tune -- "As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night"]
From every land grim tidings come, and bid us all beware;
but I would ask you for this day to lay aside despair,
to lay aside despair.
I saw a flower strange to me a-blooming in the snow;
I saw a star I could not name, in a sky I did not know,
a sky I did not know.
The flower shaped a single word, the star a single song;
"There are endless worlds beyond you now where you shall yet belong,
where you shall yet belong!"
So fear ye not for plague or war, and fear ye not the storm;
this holy time shall wrap you round and keep you from all harm,
and keep you from all harm.
Oh, blessings on your going forth, and on your coming home;
and blessed be where'er you bide, and everywhere you roam,
and everywhere you roam.
