Home again...

The Man and I are home now, well he went to work and I came home, he’ll be in a bit later.

So where have we been, well if you read the chrissy blogs you’d know that The Man and I spent it with my cousin. She’s the daughter of my Dad’s sister. They live about an hour’s train ride away. And then only a short walk from the local rail station.

Families are great aren’t they, you don’t see them for such a long time, and when you do it’s like you only saw them yesterday.  

The Man and I had just the best Christmas. A really truly traditional one. The only thing missing was the snow. 

After everyone had gone home we sat and talked and talked and talked until well after 2am. How long is it since I have been up until after midnight? Hmm quite a long time I can tell you.

Then on Boxing Day, once we had all gotten out of bed it was a short walk to the local pub. That visit was marred a bit by a group of yobbos playing pool who got louder and louder. That was OK, until the winner of the game threw the contents of his glass over the loser. Not very nice that. Then a short time later the girlfriends of the group began to arrive, time for us to leave. 

We got a tad wet on the way back, but it didn’t dampen our spirits for the remainder of the day. We were supposed to play a game, but chatting and exchanging stories was more fun than any board game.

We did manage to get a reasonably early night which was good as we did get up early so that we could catch the train back to London. 

The Man and I had planned to come back on Boxing Day, but our plans went ‘gang aft a gley’ as the poet wrote. And there were absolutely no trains running on that day at all, so even had we been able to get back into London we would have had a job and a half getting back to Crystal Palace.

Boxing Day ......

The Man and I have has a lovely Christmas with my cousin and her family. A traditional one with all the trimmings. The only thing missing was the snow.
When I bought our train tickets to come out here I said to the ticket seller that that we were returning on Boxing Day. "No you're not" she said . "Yes we are"  I replied. "No you're not" She answered back. And we're not. All the trains are on strike.
Looking for more money again. They are a greedy lot.
For us it means we get to spend another day with my cousin. But for many travellers it will be a major problem.

Wishes...

I don't have much to say today, but I do want to say this to you...

Yes that means you too...

The Man and I wish you a very Merry Christmas. may it be filled with love and laughter, good food and good friends...
And that 2013 is everything you want it to be and more.

Christmas trivia....

As ubiquitous as it is today before 1224 there was no such thing as a nativity scene. Upon returning from Israel St. Francis of Assisi was inspired to re-create the birth of Jesus with live animals and actors. During that first display, the manger was also used as an altar for Christmas Mass. From there, the nativity caught on like wildfire.

On the morning of December 25th, 1914, German soldiers on the western front stepped out of their trenches and walked towards Allied troops calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. What followed was one of the greatest expressions of camaraderie in history. Soldiers mingled, exchanged cigarettes, and even played a game of football. The event was dramatized in the french film Joyeux Noel.

The "Twelve Days" don't end on Christmas Day — they begin on it.   the "12 days of Christmas" don't begin on December 13 and end on Christmas Day; they begin on Christmas Day and end on January 5, marking the time of "merry-making" until the Epiphany. The singer's true love is generously extending his or her gift-giving for nearly two weeks after Christmas Day. (We're celebrating now anyway.)

 A popular abbreviation for Christmas, the X represents the Greek letter Chi, or the first letter of the word “Christ”. During the 16th Century, European Christians began using the Chi as a symbolic abbreviation for Christmas just as the Chi-Rho had often been used a symbolic abbreviation for Christ. Although in former centuries this association was understood, in recent times this has led to misunderstanding and controversy.

Every year since 1947 Oslo has sent a Christmas tree to London as an expression of gratitude for the United Kingdom’s help in World War II.

By an Act of Parliament in 1644 Christmas was declared illegal in England due to the fact that it was associated with revelry and merrymaking. This obviously led to a good amount of conflict and when the Puritans left for the New World they brought their distaste for Christmas with them.

For centuries, holly has been synonymous with the holiday season. In ancient Rome, holly branches were given as a gesture of friendship during Saturnalia, the winter solstice festival. Druids would decorate their homes with holly during Britain's gloomy winters, believing that the sun always shone on this sacred tree. Likewise, pagans would bring holly and other evergreens inside to ensure that Nature would return in the spring

Missed it...

Just turned on the TV just in time to see the credits for a Muppet Christmas movie.

Took me right back to when the Girls Brigade troupe my daughters belonged to put on an entirely different seasonal concert. A Muppet Christmas story. I never got to see the production because I was backstage turning children into their alter ego Muppet characters.

 Judging by the amount of applause the kids got the audience loved it; it was fun to listen to though. There were even the two old men hecklers.

Making the costume was fun too. My girls played the parts of Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew.  For Beaker’s face I wrapped a long piece of cardboard around my daughter’s head, to get the size. Painted pink  with a bulbous nose, startled eyes, a downturned mouth,  topped with bright orange hair and tah-dah… 

Bunsen took a bit longer to make.  I papier-mâchéd an inflated balloon, then painted on his features, added glasses, dressed the daughter in my lab coat and presto chango there was the mad scientist.  

A bit of a change from the Christmas concerts of my childhood. I remember one from primacy school. Us little kids were all angels. Mum made my full length wide slaved costume from an old sheet. Dad took up the challenge of my wings, somehow fabricating the silver creations so that they would stand out by themselves. Was there a halo? I think so, metal wire wrapped in Christmas tree tinsel.

Christmas cards...

Given the popularity of greeting cards, it's no wonder why it's a multi-billion dollar industry. The ancestor to modern greeting cards is the vintage Christmas card, which paved the way for the cards we send today, and opened the door to fun, everyday cards and thank-you notes. History in the making!

In 1843, the Christmas card was invented by a man named John Calcott Horsley, who lived Italy. He was hired by Sir Henry Cole in an effort to depict the desolate living conditions of the poor. The idea was to raise awareness and encourage people to help those in need.

Ironically, the result was a card portraying a happy family, including a child sipping wine. Scrawled across the front of the card was "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." This led to criticism as it was not socially correct for a child to drink alcohol. Despite this, the Christmas card was a hit and manufacturers found it difficult to keep up with the demand. By 1880, the Christmas card business was big and growing rapidly.

The "trick card" era came next. Ranging from fans to puzzles, these cards quickly became popular. Common materials for these cards were satin and silk, making them quite elegant. They came in many different shapes such as bells, animals, and stars. The all-time favorites were pop-ups, tab-cards and cards that made sounds.

In 1862, Charles Goodall created cards that said "A Merry Christmas" and soon, religious-themed cards followed. Mangers, the baby Jesus, and Mary and Joseph were often the subject matter. Until 1815, Americans imported the cards from England. Later that year, Louis Prang opened his own shop to print off Christmas cards. By the year 1881, he had sold nearly 30 million cards, a booming success!

Today, greeting cards are still popular and evolving. Not only can we easily find Christmas cards, we can buy cards for special occasions such as birthdays and weddings -- and holidays, including Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Day. Nonetheless, modern greeting cards will always resemble the classical ones invented in 1843. Who would want it any other way?

How unbelivable is htat ...

 Well the doom and gloom merchants, forever on the lookout for a gullible audience, have got it wrong again. No surprises there. And the world didn’t end today. Trying to recover from the lunacy some are saying, ‘Oh no we really didn’t mean that it was the end of the world, just the end of an age, an era of thinking’ 

Oh come on, did you really think that just because the calendar of some ancient civilisation ended on this day that we would cease to exist. 

You’ll be telling me next that you believe in fairies? Well one of my daughters believes in the laundry fairy who occasionally visits to fold up that pile of washing.

In past times, man thought that the world ended at the visible horizon, that you could actually sail off the edge of the world. Then on laces on the map where the map makes ran out of known geography they wrote ‘here be dragons’

Then it was thought that if you went fast in a motorised vehicle some unimaginable would fate would befall you.

Then within the last a couple of youngster convinced the world that  there really were fairies at the bottom of their garden. The Fairies appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. In 1917.

Can you see where I am going with this train of thought, I hope you are.

If it sounds too good ,or too amazing to be true, then it probably is.