Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !!

[clean]

I hope that all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I have risked travel to see my parents in Florida.  This afternoon, my brother, his wife and my niece will join us, but my sister in law and niece will spend the nights at her parents' house.  (My brother will stay here as there is not really enough room there).

They will stay until Wednesday morning. 

Next Monday (28th) we will begin the return drive to our home.

What are YOUR Christmas plans?  Are you following Fauci's  lead and having a Zoom Christmas this year? 

Whatever your plans, I hope that we are all able to have a safe  and healthy time this year, and that we can have our traditional extended family get togethers next Christmas!

[mamselle]

1. Staying put. Blissfully. All groceries are in for the next 3 weeks. No need to go out for days...

2. Two chant services and some others lined up.

3. Teaching online music lessons both weeks to assist in the sanity maintenance of the parents whose students I teach (and because they have time to practice, so lessons go even better...). No Theory classes on Fridays, for obvious reasons....and to give us all a break!

4. Working on a) Procedure manual for the N/P job I'm finishing up on as part-time EA,
                     b) Fully transcribed minutes for latest board meeting of same
                     c) Quickbooks entries and a basic accounting-like intro for the sweet bimbo taking my place
(I can't wait to be done with this and out of there!)

5. Hoping to get in a few more licks on the 1st book chapter and 2 PowerPoint now in process. Once #4 above is all done, "only" my teaching will take up my writing time. They're actually talking about a bonus that will free me up for 3 months, which I plan to use for more writing time.

6. Good foodie stuff planned for now and again..and more "fun work" on my "Cant-go-to-France" fantasy trip..

7. Probably 2 or 3 Zoom calls with sibs and friends along the way.

8. Oh, and the wonderful Tues. PM folk dance will be offered both weeks, so that's especially good!

M.

[hmaria1609]

We're staying put too.
Christmas cards have been coming in the mail and they go on our tree.  I love seeing the outdoor (and indoors too) Christmas decorations and lights; they're lovely with a snowy backdrop! I've been playing Christmas music too.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!

Here's Jim Carter who played Charles Carson, butler at Downton Abbey, reading the poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from the "Christmas at Downton Abbey" CD album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRD25i4k3lo
Enjoy!

[dr_codex]

We'll have a Zoom Christmas /
With(out) you ...

The international grandparents are not happy, but not budging.
The domestic grandparents are not happy, and probably not budging.

My guess is that direct neighbors under quarantine will deter all comers.

Honestly, we do so much by phone every year during the holidays that adding video might make some things easier.

Stay safe, y'all

dc

[sinenomine]

I'll be home alone (which I actually enjoy), and will Zoom with siblings, nephews, and nieces on Christmas afternoon. I'm looking forward to some leisurely days, spending extra time with my horse and playing the piano, and reading and video watching. I haven't stayed up til midnight on New Year's since 2000, but I may do so this year, just to bid 2020 good riddance....

Stay safe, everyone!

[apl68]

Heading home to see my parents, which in this case means driving a couple of hours nonstop.  It will be just us this year.  My brother and his wife made it for Thanksgiving already from halfway across the country.

I've been turning down local invitations that I would like to accept to reduce the chance of exposure before going to see Mom and Dad.  They've been taking precautions and masking seriously, and have so far stayed out of harm's way.

We'll have a quiet Christmas long weekend, probably watch a movie or two on DVD, and maybe go for a long sightseeing drive with their dog.  And Mom will be sure to rope me into some games of Scrabble, which she is very hard to beat at.

[cathwen]

Christmas Eve is when our festivities, such as they are, begin.  Both my husband and I grew up in families that put up the tree and decorate on Christmas Eve, so that is a tradition we have continued.  So we'll do that together Wednesday night.

Christmas Day is usually just the two of us.  The day after, we usually have at least one of our three daughters here, often two, and sometimes all three,  but this year everyone is staying put.  Our youngest in LA and her boyfriend are sick with something that sure sounds like Covid but could just be the flu, so we're a little anxious about that (awaiting test results). 

[mahagonny]

Typically (though this year is different) by the time Christmas day comes I've had about enough of the crowds in stores, crass commercialism, traffic etc. But I never get tired of Christmas songs or seasonal related music, I never get tired of the tree, never get tired of lights in windows or on lawns. I don't mind hearing the songs in August.

[mamselle]

Sorry to say, that's something I won't miss.

As a professional strolling musician for 40+ years of playing for C'mas parties and the like, I even finally tired of learning new carol lyrics in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

And the chord progressions (except for "Chestnuts") are so repetitive I go nuts just hearing them on overhead speakers.

So, that's another C'mas blessing I hadn't even thought about,....NO MUSAK!!!

(Sorry, please feel free to return now to your regularly-scheduled nostalgia...)

M.

[mahagonny]

Oh, sure, but wait: I'm a bigger music snob than you are. To wit:
The chord progressions may be repetitive but at least the songs have chords and melodies in them, which can't be said for  a lot of present day  recorded sonic entertainment found in public areas.

As William F. Buckley said to Muhammed Ali, 'let's not fight.'

"De gustibus non est disputandum."

[Vkw10]

Partner, Nephew, and I are doing Twelve Days of Christmas at home. We open a gift each morning, eat a light brunch, walk in a park, have a sumptuous mid-afternoon meal, nap, walk again, then play board games or take turns reading aloud and working on jigsaw. We have a dozen packages each under the tree, so we'll finish up on New Year's Eve.

Lunch today is Moroccan. The apartment smells heavenly. Given the spice order Nephew compiled, we'll be sampling a  dozen cuisines this month, before he hauls the remaining spice to his apartment for spring semester.

Christmas Day, we'll be joining a family zoom for traditional reading of Biblical passages, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Uncle LeRoy's letter home from somewhere in the Pacific December 1943. We might sing a few carols, or rather, as my brother puts "make a joyful noise unto the Lord even if it does hurt his ears."

[mamselle]

Oh, sure, but wait: I'm a bigger music snob than you are. To wit:
The chord progressions may be repetitive but at least the songs have chords and melodies in them, which can't be said for  a lot of present day  recorded sonic entertainment found in public areas.

As William F. Buckley said to Muhammed Ali, 'let's not fight.'

"De gustibus non est disputandum."

I actually don't mind sonic free-form music, at least it's different, if only a different kind of repetition....at least for a little while....iike maybe half an hour.

And there are usually modal or other structures governing them, so it's not as if they have no organizational patterns at all.

Unless I'm being paid to write about it, or even just given a by-line online, I don't generally try to dispute matters of taste, or make a big deal about them; I just know what I don't care to hear and avoid it.

So if, in a different non-Covid world, going to the mall were even something I wanted to do, I'd make brief sorties into various shops and finish up rather quickly so as not to be too exposed for too long to the dread chord progressions.

I might also mutter things under my breath about them, but not so loudly as to interrupt anyone else's enjoyment of them, since, indeed, their <<gustibus>> isn't asking for my <<disputandem>>

A considerate curmudgeon, a la Cleveland Amory, I try to be...

M.