IKEA

When it is one of those days where I must rearrange, reorganize or redo and need new gear, IKEA is becoming my favorite store. Granted, though the quality of the merchandise in my price range is not the greatest, it works well for the short term use we will give anything we get from there. We have been into London to the IKEA there several times in the last year, the latest time being today. In the future I will not plan on going to IKEA during the holiday season. There were queues to get into the parking lot; we knew we were in trouble when traffic was backed up a couple of miles from the store. They were having a sale! Eek. The store was crowded, but it’s always crowded, even during the work week. Today was a bit worse though. Fortunately I knew what I wanted and we didn’t have to try to browse amidst the zillion other people who were moseying along at a leisurely pace. Then, since they had all the tills open, we didn’t have to wait long to pay and got out of there in a half hour or so. Of course, it took almost that long to get out of the parking garage.

It’s Boxing Day!

Now, granted, the name might lead you to believe all Brits are headed down to the arena to see the likes George Foreman or Mohammed Ali duking it out, the day has nothing to do with that type of boxing. (Sorry about the old boxing blokes, don’t know who the boxing hero’s are these days….) Believe it or not, it’s actually a continuation of the Christmas holiday. While some quick thinking might lead you to a couple of ideas as to the meaning, it actually doesn’t refer to boxing up all the unwanted gifts to return to Marks and Spencer, nor does it refer to boxing up the trash. Neither does it give license to finally let cousin Fred have it when he tells the same joke for the twentieth time. The most commonly espoused story is that it was a day for the aristocracy to give the servants off, since they’d have to work on Christmas serving up Christmas pudding to the master. So, they’d get the day after Christmas off and would be sent home with a box of something for the family. Thus “Boxing Day”.

It is also known as St Stephens Day, which seems to me to be a bit more relevant to this day and time than celebrating a day to give a gift and a day off to the lower classes.

Christingle

Christingle is a church service that is held during advent in preparation for celebrating the birth of Jesus. We attended on Christmas Eve. The service is aimed at children, with a children’s sermon and the giving of the Christingle to the kids. (A Christingle is an orange, with a red ribbon around the middle, a candle on the top and four sticks with dried fruit or candy stuck on them. They represent different parts of the story of Jesus and his message to his followers. The orange is the world. The red ribbon is the blood of Jesus that was shed to save mankind. The four cocktail sticks decorated with different fruits or sweets represent the four corners of the world or the four seasons. The candle at the centre of the orange represents Jesus as the light of the world.) Once the children have their Christingles with the candle lit they stand around the edges of the sanctuary and sing. (“Now Praise the Father”, a song about Christingles, sung to the tune of “Morning has Broken”.) This is an iffy proposition, as many of the children are quite small and it is very crowded. Definitely a fire hazard! But, with the lights down and the candles burning and the sweet little voices singing, it was very nice.

To make your own Christingle you will need the following:
an orange, a red ribbon, 4 cocktail sticks, dried fruit or soft sweets and a birthday candleholder and candle.
1) Tie or tape the ribbon around middle of the orange.
2) Place a few sweets or pieces of dried fruit onto each cocktail stick.
3) Insert the cocktail sticks into the orange around the top.
4) Insert your candleholder and candle into the middle of the top of your orange.

Viola! Christingle.

Cash for Carollers

I’ve heard of offering Christmas treats to carollers – hot apple cider or some such thing. Here when a group of carollers come to the door, you’re supposed to give them money. I suppose that is easier than giving them a hot drink – unless you’ve got no cash on hand and are scrambling about the house looking for a pound coin or two to give them.

Last year we didn’t know that we were supposed to give them money, so they’d come to the door and sing and we would just listen and say thank you. Ooops! I’m surprised any have come this year.

Rental Cars and Tiny Motorcycles

We’ve changed rental cars yet again. We are now on our fourth type of mini-van. So far we’ve had a VW Sharon, Ford Galaxy, Renault Espace and now we have a Kia Sedona. National Car rental sent someone to pick up the Renault a couple of days ago. The pick up person comes on a tiny motorcycle (think clown on a motorcycle at the circus and you’ve about got it), then promptly disassembles it and puts it in the car then drives off.

Wonky Grocery Carts

Four swiveling wheels make the shopping carts here add a whole other level of excitement to a trip to the grocery. The fuller and heavier the cart gets, the harder it is to control. Picture slipping and sliding in your car on an icy road and you’ll have the general idea. There is a science to keeping them under control that is not completely within my grasp. Add bagging your own groceries to the equation and I’m usually utterly worn out at the end of a trip to the shop. The only solice I have is that the other shoppers seem equally as worn out by the whole process as I am!

Christmas Festivity

Our Parish Church presented “A Programme of Christmas Festivity” this evening. For two hours this evening we sang songs, listened to readings and heard songs. The first half was mostly readings from Dickens. We heard a humourous reading from “Pickwick Papers”, a scary reading from “Great Expectations”, and a Christmas reading from “A Christmas Carol”. There was a humourous story called “Absent mindedness in the Parish Choir” which was a story about a sleepy band who forgot where they were and played pub songs at the end of the sermon. Then we sang the Twelve Days of Christmas with great gusto. Half way through the evening, there was an Interval with mince pies and mulled wine (both of which were a new experience for us). The second half of the evening was an enjoyable mix of songs and very funny readings, including “The Wedding of the Painted Doll”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Silent Night”, “Old Sam’s Christmas Pudding” and lastly “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful”.

Besides being a spectator for the evening I got to do part of a reading as well, as the narrator in the Dicken’s piece from Great Expectations. I believe the organizers thought that there was some irony in having an american accent read the narrators part of Dickens. I believe they were right.