The full Christmas event

The past four days have been full with the celebration of Christmas, and for us, it isn't over yet. We still will have our gift exchange with John and Cynthia later this week. The Friday Dummerston choir rehearsal for Christmas Eve was postponed because of wintry weather, so we had an 11a.m. rehearsal on Saturday. Seven people made it to that: Eliza, Andrea, Wendy, Ellen, Mary, David and me. That was good! We ironed out a lot! Jim and Mary arrived from Maine about 4pm. just after I finished vacuuming, mopping, and decorating the mantel. Five more came to choir rehearsal at 5:30pm: Jim, Rick, Parker, Sam and Calvin. We ended up with plenty of rehearsal time, and the choir sounded good! John and Cynthia came to the service, which was special for me.

The Dummerston service: Top to bottom: the women sections; John and Cynthia; Silent Night by candlelight. ***********r

After the 7pm Dummerston service we went to our place for a quick supper: smoked fish chowder. J&C joined us. Then we dashed to Guilford to rehearse for the 11pm service. For the first time ever, there were fewer people at Guilford than Dummerston. But Pastor Elisa put her special mark on it as usual. She asked me to read John 1:1-5 at the service, and Ellen was asked to read the story of the Shepherds from Luke, but she could not get out of her ear the memory of Tony Barrand reading that passage from the King James Version on Christmas Eve, and rather than read the NRSV which was handed to her, she recited the KJV from memory. Brave soul!

Ellen reciting from Luke 2.5ff.

Reading John 1:1-6*************************** We got home from the Midnight service after 1:00a.m., and didn't get to bed until after 2a.m. Christmas Day, we had to get ready for the gathering at Katie & Savanna's. Every family had to prepare a basket of goodies which would be traded as our gift exchange. But Ellen also contributes Stollen and Plum Pudding to the eats. Fortunstely, much of this work Ellen had done earlier. So we were able to pack off for Shutesbury in fairly good season.

Preparing to eat. The meal was delicious!********* In addition to eating, we played games and sang carols. One of the games was brought by Brendon. I think it was called Gist. It was a word game, similar to Apples to Apples You got five cards that were "of" cards. The "dealer" established the first part of an analogy: What is the Such and such of such and such. E.g., "What" (or "WhO") is the Mother Teresa of preparing meals for others." (Answer could be Ellen!). Here is a description from the website: "Gist" is a twist on Apples to Apples. Deal each player five cards from the OF deck to start the game. Each round, the Decider draws a card from the THE deck. Each other player then plays an OF card and replenishes his hand. Each combination of THE and OF creates a question in the form of, "What is the X of Y?" After everyone has a chance to explain their combination, players predict which combination of THE and OF the Decider will choose, and then the Decider makes his choice. Score for predicting correctly and for playing the chosen OF card. An example might be, "What is THE microwave OF friendship." It took a while to get the hang of it, but once we did, it was fun. Another game to add to Salad Bowl and Fictionary Dictionary! I had prepared a "MadLibs" game which we did. That's where you create a Narrative and then choose words from the Narrative for which you substitute words which you solicit from the group by asking, "Ellen, give me a number," or "Katie, give me a verb describing the movement of a human body," etc. Here's what I ended up with: WHAT WILL 2023 BRING? What will 2023 bring? It is bound to be full of surprises. Will __Mike Pence___ run for president? Will the Republicans destroy the __Security and Exchange commision__________? Will the Democrats choose __Elizabeth Warren________for Vice - President? Will China start a war with ____Uganda____? Will the war in Ukraine cause Putin to ___Vomit_____? So many questions! One big issue is Climate Change. Will the average temperature of earth exceed __643_____degrees? If so, immediate steps will need to be taken. We will immediately need to ___chop_________ our __brassiers__________. We will have to heat our homes with ___antiques______. ____Trollies______will be made illegal. Cars will run on _incense___. ____42_____ people will lose their jobs, but there will also be ___1,417_______ new jobs. Everyday life will change. We will stop wearing ____ski pants_________. We will eat only __cauliflower_____ for breakfast. Instead of driving to the store, we will have to _____kick______. Our cell phones will. have to be thrown in the __attic________. . The biggest sacrifice will be giving up ______ breathing_____. But there will be advantages too! We will have more time for reading _____Herman Melville____, ___Teen Magazine_____ and ______the Boston Herald____. Children will ____play_____ instead of going to school. Money will. no longer be needed - instead we will use _____mailboxes____. But what is going to happen to our planet? It is expected that __17____ square miles of forest will be cut down. WInd speeds in hurricanes will reach __3652______ mph. Fires will be more frequent: as many as ___16_____ every day. Coastal flooding will be huge: it is expected that at least ____33 1/3___. cities will be under water by _____Jan 1, 2027________. This will create many climate refugees. In 2023, at least _____4____ will try to move into Western Massachusetts and Vermont!********************* Pretty Silly!

The whole group gathered at Katie and Savanna's home: Sitting, l. to r.: Me, Julie, Savanna. Standing, l. to r.: Jim, Brendon, Mary, Tye, Jerry, Katie, Tamar, Ellen. B is taking the picture. The tissue-paper crowns on people's heads come from "crackers" we open at the dinner table.

Ellen and Tamar singing carols.

The tree with baskets under it - each basket had a number, and each family drew a number randomly out of a bowl. Then each family opened the items in their basket for all to see. We got Tye and "B's" basket.************** The climax of the day is the plum pudding - or "figgy" pudding, as the song says (We all want some figgy pudding..."). The lights are dimmed and it is brought in flaming.

Flaming plum pudding.