If any of you in the Northern hemisphere are feeling jealous of our warm weather, @andysantics48 has been having a thunderstorm today. The house was shaking, it was absolutely pissing down, her power and internet kept cutting out and the cat was crying with fear. Now that you feel a bit better, I can tell you that although I was expecting rain, it’s been a beautiful sunny day in the capital city.
My main Xmas activity for the day has been getting my overseas Xmas cards in the mail.
Does anyone remember the days when we sent real, physical Xmas cards to all our friends and family? Those days are largely gone, replaced by emails and then by online Xmas cards. But there’s something nice about actual cards arriving in the mail, and stringing them up on a piece of cotton as an extra decoration.
So we have a select few friends we still send cards to, along with the aging rellies who aren’t online. Sadly there are less of them every year. But I still have several aunts in their 90s. Most of them are in New Zealand, so I have another week up my sleeve before those go out.
But today I wrote cards for an old workmate and a cousin in England, my brother in Dubai who isn’t going to make it here this year after visiting in August for Mum’s 80th, an aunt and cousin in Brisbane, and a couple of friends.
Oh yes, Mum’s 80th…
I haven’t told you about that, have I? But that’s why I disappeared off the face of the earth (or at least the face of Steemit) in early August.
We wanted to make it special for her, and my ambitious plans included a This Is Your Life type presentation, complete with photo slide show, preceded by a Youtube playlist of some of her favourite songs, playing on my brother’s large TV.
I had no idea what that would involve…
Getting her entire photo collection down here under another pretext, getting them scanned, @frot tidying them up as best he could, trying to figure out who some of them were of and when, and then making the final selection and putting them into Powerpoint, so I could control the timing. Writing up my own memories, then several phone conversations with my aunt to piece together their early years, plus info about Grandma and Grandad which I wanted to include. The Youlist playlist was comparatively quick and simple.
So that took all my spare time for most of August, but it was worth it. It all went very well, and she loved it. It brought back a lot of memories for family and friends who were there on the day, and lots of laughs.
My plan was to be back after that, but what with one thing and another (including an 80th celebration for my step-father, shown above with Mum), 3.5 months sped by and here we are…
Maybe after Xmas I can tell you all my adventures.
My other Xmas activity of the day
I’ve probably banged on ad nauseum about my Monday morning Arthritis exercise class, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. We only have two classes in December before finishing for the year, so I have to include some Xmas music in both of those, don’t I?
Today’s selection included some that were in my post from two years ago about my favourite Xmas songs – Snoopy’s Xmas, the Pentatonix version of Little Drummer Boy, and Jewel’s rendition of Silent Night.
But there a couple I don’t think I’ve shared any time before. One of my favourite renditions of Amazing Grace is by Elvis Presley.
And this is a song we’ve done in the choir. It’s an African song called Ukuthula, preformed by the Cape Town Youth Choir.
The words mean “Peace in this world of sin (Halleluja) the blood of Jesus brings peace”. Peace is replaced in each new verse with Redemption, Praise, Faith, Victory, Comfort, and back to Peace.
• Day 1 – Carol singing with the NZ Symphony Orchestra
• Day 2 – Kilbirnie Santa Parade
What will Day 4 bring?
Thanks for reading and listening
Top pic based on one from Pixabay, a family photo, videos from YouTube.
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