Time to sit and read my Christmas books. First up is a collection of Peanuts cartoons issued in 2000. This one's a bit reminiscent of the first page of The Hobbit.

Posted by: @coracle

Time to sit and read my Christmas books. First up is a collection of Peanuts cartoons issued in 2000. This one's a bit reminiscent of the first page of The Hobbit.

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That almost makes me think of Puddleglum in The Silver Chair. "What do you mean good?"

There's a song called Noel sung in Swahili-

How interesting to see a Swahili Christmas carol! Last night we caught on TV the tail end of Christmas carols in the Domain, I think it was, though the Omicron Grinch has led us back to square one, with crowds discouraged from going to actually see it being performed. It was my favourite Christmas carol, The Holy City, always performed here, at Christmas in Sydney, even if it isn't strictly speaking a Christmas carol. Year after year it was sung most beautifully by an Australian singer of Malaysian origin, whose stage name was Kamahl, who also released an album, Christmas with Kamahl. The male singer last night wasn't too bad either. 

This is the first verse.

Last night I lay asleeping
There came a dream so fair
I stood in old Jerusalem
Beside the temple there
I heard the children singing
And ever as they sang
Methought the voice of Angels
From Heaven in answer rang
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
Lift up you gates and sing
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna to your King!"

Merry Christmas everyone for tomorrow. The time here, is 9.48 am on 24 December, 2021. 

@waggawerewolf27, I absolutely love "The Holy City", having grown up with that song. It sure is not heard enough these days, at least around here. Could George Beverly Shea ever sing that piece!! Sure glad it's still around your area, wagga. I recall accompanying on the piano a beautiful male soloist (also a friend) for this piece, and it was such a joy to play! I get chills even thinking about this song - both the words and the music. Thanks for bringing it up!

@waggawerewolf27 Oh yes, I remember Kamahl and that wonderful song! I've found a few other excellent renditions of it online in recent years, but my favourite is by Vera Lynn, the legendary wartime entertainer who passed away just last year, I think it was, aged 103.

Happy Christmas Eve to all, and Merry Christmas already to my Oz / NZ friends!!

Used to be in a community choir, and we did a Christmas concert. 

Merry Christmas to all the Narniawebbers!

@jasmine_tarkheena, ooohh, this is one of my favourite Christmas carols. This is not sung nearly often enough these days. How wonderful the choir you were in sang this beauty. Well done! Thanks for posting. The rich words, those lovely harmonies ... ♥

Here is a very powerful dance-drama to "Mary Did You Know?".  It is telling the whole story of Christmas.

@jasmine_tarkheena, I love Selah's Christmas album.  

It's been a busy Christmas Eve here with lots of food, games, laughter, and Christmas music. And some last minute gift wrapping.  

Merry Christmas, all!

SnowAngel

Merry Christmas, NarniaWeb!

It's actually the last hour of Christmas Eve here on the West Coast, and it's even snowing outside.

I quoted this last year, a Christmas Eve message of hope from three men who were farther away from home than anyone ever had been before.

"God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth."

Apollo 8 message

Merry Christmas!

I've got Turkish Delight in my stocking this morning. It's from Istanbul, so it's the authentic ones.

Wow! That Turkish delight looks really toothsome. All different flavours, too.  If you actually go to Istanbul, to visit the Grand Bazaar, you may walk down one of the aisles there with whole shops advertising Turkish Delight, not only the traditional sort, but also flavoured mint, pistachio, rosewater, orange, lemon, and apricot. 

Unexpectedly, I also received a box of Turkish delight for Christmas yesterday. If I go to Auburn, a suburb of Sydney, where the mosque there is called the Gallipoli Mosque, I believe I might find in one of the shops there, nearly authentic Turkish Delight, made by Turkish émigrés, who have settled here.   I wonder why boxes or tins of Turkish Delight are usually octagonal or hexagonal in shape?

@Stargazer: It's actually the last hour of Christmas Eve here on the West Coast, and it's even snowing outside.

So some NarniaWebbers have actually had a White Christmas, after all? And did you see last night's launch of the James Webb telescope, from French Guiana, at 11.20 pm, AEDST? 

The time here, by the way, is 9.42 am, 26th December, 2021, so it is Boxing Day, here, now, & the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race will be starting soon. If Christmas Day, itself, is the first day of Christmas, our daughter said she started it off with Three Corellas playing, Two kangaroos mating, and One Church service to attend. Ain't life grand!

I had a very merry Christmas. Sadly there was no snow this year, but it was still a wonderful day spent with my family. We opened gifts, played lots of games (Sequence, Domination, Scrabble, ColorKu), listened to Christmas music, ate yummy food, and drank coffee. 

Among the many gifts exchanged was the 5-6 player extension for Catan, so yerterday afternoon the siblings and I spent a couple hours playing four 6-player games. One of the games only lasted 26 minutes.  

We also got the Tim Holt Western Collection: Volume 4 which completes the set of 4 and we started watching it last night. It's always fun to get another set of western films especially when we haven't seen most of them before.  

Is anyone else planning to celebrate Epiphany (January 6th)? 

SnowAngel

@snowangel  I don't celebrate Epiphany itself, although I like to observe it (and sing the Carol As With Gladness'), 

However I usually have a small gathering on the night of Jan 6th for Twelfth Night. Every year it's different, depending on who comes and what we feel like doing. 

I had a very enjoyable Christmas with my mother and other family, but getting home yesterday was a very long, dull adventure. Between piles of snow in Seattle (where they aren't used to it) cancelling flights, a "third party outage" and other issues affecting airlines, and hours-long delays on the runways at both ends, it seemed to take forever. 😉 Glad to be home safely, and that's what matters.