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Dec. 23rd, 2006 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikWent out to the Shope's annual tree lighting and carolling party tonight. After some consulting, we figured it's at least the 25th one.
Got there a little early (wrong info from mom) to find carolers from the local church going door to door. J, S's wife remarked that she'd never seen carolers doing that before. This both did and didn't surprise me... I was a caroler so many years (if not exactly for a church group). And it was always that sort of neighborhood -- caroling, easter egg hunts in the park, block parties, etc. S wondered if we were going to get into competitive caroling, with groups of carolers walking the streets in packs, snapping their fingers like the Jets.
I'm so there.
J is about six months pregnant. S is my oldest friend, and he'll be the first of the group of us who grew up together to have a kid. I am so happy for them. They are going to have the best family. (S has always impressed me as just having this strong internal sense of family. Of course, most of what I know about family I learned from him and his parents...) S, J, and M, the younger brother are going to sail over in the boat M lives in, drop by the barge for tea and then we'll all go out for fish and chips. Or at least that's the theory. I'm hoping. (M it turns out was one of the carolling kayakers that I missed. *sniff*)
Anyhow, we all gathered around the tree in the yard, and the kids lit the candles, youngest to oldest. (While the group of us who grew up with this exchanged a lot of quiet comments about how we used to be those kids, and the tree used to be a lot taller than us, too...) And we sang a bunch of carols. Once again, I managed to avoid "Frosty". In general the carols were a little more standard and very religious than I remembered... I think I'm going to email them lyrics to some of my favorite wassail songs and see if we can vary things a bit. (S asked "What is Wassail?" So I sang him from the Gower Wassail "Our Wassail is made, of a good ale and cake, some nutmeg and ginger the best we could get." See? Not only is it a universal sentiment, but there's even a recipe. Wassail songs are the best.)
My voice isn't all the way recovered from a cold earlier (tricky, when I'm expected to be the one to hit the high notes) and I managed to melt one of the gloves over the fire... still, one of my favorite holiday traditions. Maybe I don't deal with the family christmas thing very well, but the neighborhood one is something else again.
Got there a little early (wrong info from mom) to find carolers from the local church going door to door. J, S's wife remarked that she'd never seen carolers doing that before. This both did and didn't surprise me... I was a caroler so many years (if not exactly for a church group). And it was always that sort of neighborhood -- caroling, easter egg hunts in the park, block parties, etc. S wondered if we were going to get into competitive caroling, with groups of carolers walking the streets in packs, snapping their fingers like the Jets.
I'm so there.
J is about six months pregnant. S is my oldest friend, and he'll be the first of the group of us who grew up together to have a kid. I am so happy for them. They are going to have the best family. (S has always impressed me as just having this strong internal sense of family. Of course, most of what I know about family I learned from him and his parents...) S, J, and M, the younger brother are going to sail over in the boat M lives in, drop by the barge for tea and then we'll all go out for fish and chips. Or at least that's the theory. I'm hoping. (M it turns out was one of the carolling kayakers that I missed. *sniff*)
Anyhow, we all gathered around the tree in the yard, and the kids lit the candles, youngest to oldest. (While the group of us who grew up with this exchanged a lot of quiet comments about how we used to be those kids, and the tree used to be a lot taller than us, too...) And we sang a bunch of carols. Once again, I managed to avoid "Frosty". In general the carols were a little more standard and very religious than I remembered... I think I'm going to email them lyrics to some of my favorite wassail songs and see if we can vary things a bit. (S asked "What is Wassail?" So I sang him from the Gower Wassail "Our Wassail is made, of a good ale and cake, some nutmeg and ginger the best we could get." See? Not only is it a universal sentiment, but there's even a recipe. Wassail songs are the best.)
My voice isn't all the way recovered from a cold earlier (tricky, when I'm expected to be the one to hit the high notes) and I managed to melt one of the gloves over the fire... still, one of my favorite holiday traditions. Maybe I don't deal with the family christmas thing very well, but the neighborhood one is something else again.
