Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 December 2004 13:30:44
Hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas. Mine has been lovely on the whole, and only a couple of wobbles! (mainly to do with missing certain people, not about being on my own - the solitude has been lovely). After recovering from Lewisham Argos on Christmas Eve, I went to our midnight (well, 11.30) Christmas Eve service which was just lovely, although as one of the singers I found it harder to concentrate on parts of the service as I was trying to sort my music out. The last-minute music worked really well, and there were a number of families there I didn't recognise who presumably were making their annual trip to church, and they certainly chose a good service to come! Very atmospheric, we started with a reading of "Christmas" by John Betjeman - when it gets to "And is it true...?" I get a shiver down my spine every time. The other reading which always does that to me is Luke 2 (the angels appearing to the shepherds) - when the angel says "Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy - today in the town of Bethlehem is born a saviour, he is Christ the Lord" (apologies for the paraphrase) I always have to stop and catch my breath. Amusement value was provided by one of the visiting families whose toddler was asleep in his pushchair throughout most of the service and who snored like a train, getting louder and louder and not standing on ceremony at all!
Then Christmas morning, back to church, where I was singing in a group of four, which was supposed to be SATB except that the other woman was also, like me, an alto. No prizes for guessing who drew the short straw, which meant that I had to be a sop for the morning, and everything had to be transposed down in order for me to stand any chance at all of hitting the high notes! (and even then it didn't always work!). More new people there, I hope they felt welcome. The only cheesy element was singing "happy birthday" to the baby Jesus (I don't even think my old church ever did that, and they were the cheesemeisters), but apart from that another good one. In the afternoon I spoke with my family, including my sister in Germany, did my gardening, and the evening I pottered about till the "Vicar of Dibley" which I thought was a bit disappointing - some bits were very funny, others too OTT and laboured. But plenty of worse ways to spend an hour I guess.
This morning I had been planning on not going to church but having a lie-in and achieving lots. However, I woke up in time and decided I really fancied going to church, so I did and I'm glad I went. It was good I think to feel grounded again in reality after the bustle and in-your-face Christmasness of the last couple of days.
So - however your Christmas turned out, I hope and pray for a peaceful and happy time for you all and for that sense of hope and expectation as we head to another new year.