- Posts tagged Advent
- Explore Advent on posterous
Monday Miscellany - last sprint before we leave.
I have been a bad blogger, but it's been a little frantic around here as we have one boy in exams, one man in high work stress, and one trip to Paris (this Thursday) to prep for. The trip doesn't really feel real, I was remarking to Z last night. We were in Rome barely three months ago, and Paris was booked very quickly due to my mother-in-law's health issues. Because we will want to spend a lot of time with her, we're not doing our usual planning for day-trips and excursions. We're just heading over there with our bags and our prayers. Alex and I will return after eight days as he starts his summer camp job later this month. Michael will stay on with his father for another week and do some touring, likely St. Malo/Mont St. Michel and then the chateaux de la Loire. One of his cousins may join them, and a convertible Golf has been offered up, do it should be a fun road trip for the guys.
Last week was busy. We saw the Eagles with Dixie Chicks Tuesday night and it was a great concert. I was surprised to see Natalie Maines with a very short haircut. They did some of their hits, some less familiar music, and a cover of Train's "Hey Soul Sister". The Eagles played a long set, packed with hits and a very 70s vibe to the staging/video. We were in a corporate box, so quite far from the stage in the Rogers Centre, but it was a great show that had everyone in the house singing along.
On Friday, I headed to Stratford with some gals from the choir to see The Tempest. We had a picnic by the lake with napping swans and ducks around our feet, saw the show and then dined at The Church before heading back to Toronto. It was the first public performance of the Tempest, which has it's media opening in a couple of weeks, and it was a stunner. Apart from a few sound issues (we had trouble hearing some of the actors when their backs were to us), it was stacked with talent and was received with an instantaneous ovation. It was lovely getting to know these ladies a little better, and it was a farewell to one of the long-standing members of the alto section who is moving to Stittsville.
The Parish choir is winding down for the year....two more Sundays of singing (of which I'll miss next week while we're away) and then we close for the summer. So we've been pulling out some familiar music. This Sunday, we sang Brahms' Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren (pdf) and John Sheppard's sublime The Lord's Supper (pdf).
I've joined another choir for the summer and we rehearse on Monday nights. I'll miss the next two rehearsals, one while I'm in Paris. On June 28th I have tickets to the National Theatre's live broadcast of the play London Assurance which I purchased months ago, before I joined the choir.
Before we leave, I need to finish up one of my genealogy courses, complete a CWL newsletter for our parish bulletin, get the house in order, pay some bills and do all the laundry before we pack. I've done all the newspaper cancellation/dog boarding stuff so it's really the last minute things that are on my mind now. Plus supervise study time for Michael. He writes his last exam on Thursday morning, and we leave that evening.
I may not be back before we leave, but I'll try to post some photos while we're away.
Ten on Tuesday
1. When do you put up and take down your Christmas decorations?
I usually put them up around the third Sunday of Advent, so that's typically a week or two before Christmas. I like to wait until Epiphay to take them down, as it's the last day of the Christmas season for Catholics.
2. What do you do to simplify the holiday season?
We've vastly downsized the cooking part of the holiday. This year, we didn't host a Christmas Open House as we've done in previous years so that's felt nice. I try to get as much shopping done in advance as possible.
3. What do you do to remind yourself and your family what the Christmas season is all about?
My sons are teens, so they've pretty much figured it all out. I sing in my parish choir, so I enter into the season pretty early with Advent music and then sing at both Midnight Mass and Christmas Day. We have an Advent wreath. I usually read through a book of daily Advent Devotions.
4. How do you spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
Both days are with family. This year, we will spend Christmas Eve with my brother and his family who have just moved to Toronto. They have young children, so it will be a relatively early night. Then I'll be at church at 11 pm to prep for Midnight Mass with the choir. Christmas Day will be spent at home. Stockings first thing in the morning, and then Mass at 11:30. My brother and his family and my mom will join us Christmas afternoon for gifts and dinner.
5. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
It has to be the music, sacred and secular. On the latter side, I am particularly enjoying Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
6. Did you do the whole Santa thing growing up? What do you like/not like about continuing the tradition?
We did it, and continued it with our children. We told our kids (when they asked) that it was up to them whether they believed in Santa, but that Santa would continue to visit. Now, we all buy Santa gifts for each other at Christmas.
7. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
Snowballs - essentially a shortbread ball coated with coconut. Yumsters! But I'm all about shortbread of any kind. Butter and sugar. What else does one need?
8. How do you take your egg nog?
With rum and nutmeg. Everytime I say "nutmeg" I think of Stephen Colbert's Christmas
9. What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?
I don't think I have one. But off the top, Lo, how a Rose e'er Blooming has to be near the top.
10. When was the last time you had a white Christmas?
Growing up in Ottawa, we had one every year, I think. Here in Toronto? Most years. I never got used to Christmas decorations in Atlanta with no snow.
Sunday Choral Report - Advent IV
The author of the text is unknown, likely 18th century American, and this version was set to music by Elizabeth Poston. The text:
1
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
2
His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell,
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
3
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
4
I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest a while:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
5
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive:
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
Sunday Journal
The preface to the book is a wonderful quote:
Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, of silence. Waiting for our Lord to be born. A pregnant woman is so happy, so content. She lives in such a garment of silence, and it is as though she were listening to hear the stir of life within her. One always hears that stirring compared to the rustling of a bird in the hand. But the intentness with which one awaits such stirring is like nothing so much as a blanket of silence. - Dorothy Day
Quick and easy wreath
Advent Conspiracy - Join Now!
Sunday Choral Report
Messiah Prep
This leaves me speechless....
