Uh-Oh... Tagged For An Impossible Meme!

Carolina Cannonball has tagged me for an interesting meme. Unfortunately, I am unable to comply with this one. I'm usually busy at Christmas, and, apart from one year when I was terribly antisocial and stayed at home to read a good book (I'd had a lot of work-related problems, and just couldn't face the idea of people asking me how the job was going!) I generally go elsewhere for Christmas day, once I've finished with church-related activities.

Coupled with the fact that I also go away for the Faith Winter Conference, and also the fact that Sylvester, my cat, has rather a penchant for eating any plant material left unattended, this means that Christmas trees are not my thing. I am, however, happy to make admiring noises (or disparaging remarks) about the trees of others... Being half-German makes me an expert on Christmas tree decorations, tree decorating being a national pastime (according to my mother!)

So, instead of recalling my favourite ornament, I shall describe Christmas trees of my youth. 

The most important thing was that it was always a real tree. Imitation trees were pretty ghastly objects when I was a child, and my mother despised them. If you weren't finding pine needles in the carpet (and your socks) until April, it wasn't a proper tree.

Because it was a real tree, and the varieties available in England didn't seem to last very long, the tree didn't go up until Christmas Eve. It might be bought a week before that, but it stayed in its net wrapping on the balcony outside until the big day. Once inside, it had to be put in water. Several "recipes" to prolong the life of the tree were tried, varying from sugar in the water to soluble aspirin, but they never seemed to have any noticeable effect: any attempt to swipe a chocolate sweet from a branch was rewarded by a tell-tale shower of pine needles.

I wasn't a very practically-minded child: it took me ages to discover that using scissors to snip the string holding the chocolate to the tree was far quicker and left much less in the way of evidence...

My mother had very beautiful Christmas decorations from Germany, and these were carefully unpacked each year. First thing on the tree was tinsel, and it had to be silver and fluffy, not rough, scraggy, scrawny tinsel. Occasionally silver angel-hair was added to the branches, just in small amounts. Then the baubles were hung up, and these were always silver, gold or red, or combinations of those colours.

My grandmother sent a parcel each Christmas, with a real Advent calendar, (Swiss chocolate shapes behind each window, not in a little box below) at a time when they were actually very rare in England (religious Advent calendars with chocolates in are still very rare here!) home-made biscuits, German sausage and salami, coffee and a few more decorations for the tree, as well as a supply of candles.

These candles are what I remember best. They were larger than cake candles, but much smaller than any candles sold here... I think they must have been about 1cm in diameter at a time when everything in England was measured in inches. I do remember that my mother tried to buy them from several places, and they weren't available anywhere, hence the need for the parcel. And the reason these candles were so important is that they had to fit into the little silver candle-holders which clipped onto the branches of the tree. My mother put the candles in the holders and then positioned them carefully so that they wouldn't set fire to any other decorations. It was quite time-consuming, because the weight of the candles would cause the branches to settle, and then the candle holders would have to be adjusted.

The candles would be lit for a short time once darkness fell, and a stray branch would be removed and burnt to release the pine-smell. This last practice very nearly resulted in a major catastrophe one year... as we sat down to Christmas dinner, my mother remarked on how lovely the smell of burnt pine was, and how it had lingered from the night before, so it was obviously a very superior pine tree... and then we noticed that a candle on the pine welsh dresser was actually burning a hole in the shelf...!

The final piece to be added was the "fairy" which was actually an angel. At one point, my mother switched to a star, but I can't remember when, or why. Personally, I prefer a star, simply because no-one can mistake it for a fairy (or anything else)

Ok, that's enough of my Christmas tree reminiscences for one year. I now have to tag a few poor souls...

Fr. Tim: he hasn't been tagged for a while, and his presbytery Christmas tree generally looks rather sorry for itself (the one in the church is gorgeous, but then, he doesn't have to decorate that one!)

Fr. Z, as I'm sure he has some stylish Christmas ornaments, and I want to know what they are in Latin!

The Pastor in Valle: I haven't nagged him for quite some time...

Fr. Owl: for much the same reason as the Pastor in Valle.

Fr. Longenecker: out of curiosity, as I want to know if there is anything in a British Christmas which he misses...

And, in fact, I tag anyone else who wants to play: just put a note in the combox!

Happy Happy Happy...!

The Christmas Spirit has just been cranked up a notch, as I am now on holiday for two whole weeks.

Two weeks without any marking (I carefully made sure to "forget" to bring it home with me... and we've been told that the school is closed for the entire two weeks... ) though I will have to do a little lesson-planning. Two weeks' worth of daily Mass. Two weeks spent trying to catch up with the friends I have neglected since the beginning of September.

I will get to visit family, and I'm going to the Faith Winter Conference in Stonyhurst, Lancashire... Hmmmmn.  On reflection, I might need another two weeks in January to recover!

Starting To Get Festive...

Tomorrow is the last day of term for me, and so I'm starting to feel Christmassy.  Not a lot.  Just a little bit.  The 'O' Antiphons have started, and that is when I start to play Christmassy music, and put out the crib and stuff like that.

Exploring the Blogosphere, I found the following on Creative Minority Report:

In the same post, I was delighted to come across the original Carol of the Bells.

And a re-post of my favourite version of the Carol of the Bells, which I used to announce my first video post...

The Longest Week...

Well, ok, maybe not the longest week: I think that's the week before the Summer holidays.  This must, therefore, count as the second-longest week, as school breaks up on Friday.

Yes, Leutgeb... I know that you've been off since last Friday. Don't rub it in with posts about having the time to make Christmas cakes!

Anyway, I have three days left... three days of fractious children demanding to watch DVDs instead of working ("But, Miss... it's Christmas!! Why do we have to work?") This year, as my classroom is fitted with a smartboard, I have been cheating: the children have been given homework to devise short PowerPoint presentations on various topics, and then they get to present their work to the rest of the class while I sit back and watch...

It's been quite an education... I'd never heard of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever before, and the effects of smallpox infections have been something to behold when shown on a large screen in full technicolour. I also didn't realise that Walt Disney's Pluto was introduced (and named) just after the discovery of the planetoid in the 1930s. I look forward to discovering what Year 9 have unearthed about selective breeding...

Just A Thought...

...but who's bright idea was it to entrust Bernard Madeoff with all that money?

Wasn't his name a bit of a giveaway?

(And, yes, I know it's spelt "Madoff" but all the BBC news presenters have been saying "made off" so there!)

Children's Liturgy...

The phrase "Children's Liturgy" tends to bring me out in a rash. I have attended such Masses in various parishes (by accident, usually!) where the little kiddies were encouraged to go up onto the sanctuary and stare out at the congregation, or to stand behind "Farver" all holding hands. The Eucharistic Prayer for Children (I have never been able to work out if there is more than one, or whether each priest makes up his own "explanatory" bits) makes me cringe. The children concerned never seem to be particularly keen: they are often fidgetty (not counting the ones who are busy waving back at mum) and bored. Small wonder that many of them disappear shortly after they've made their First Communion...

However, for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we had an example of what a Children's Liturgy could be...

Fr. Charles Briggs came over from Chislehurst to say a Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Meanwhile, Fr. Tim remained in the pews with the children, and encouraged them to pray. For example, as Fr. Charles said the Confiteor, Fr. Tim explained that the priest was saying sorry to God, and then lead the children in praying an Act of Contrition.

It wasn't a blow-by-blow account of the Mass; rather, it was a way to help the children participate fully in the Mass, to get them used to the idea that more than one thing can happen at once, and to realise that they don't have to follow every single word in order to participate.

There were around fifty people present at the Mass.  The thing that really struck me was the rapt attention of the children, and their recognition that they were in the presence of something sacred, something great...

I've Got A Horrible Feeling...

Teaching is a very hazardous profession. Children are positive hothouses for incubating all sorts of nasty bacteria and viruses, and schools become akin to something out of The Hot Zone. This isn't just my imagination or an old wives' tale... on starting at teacher training college, we were warned that it took, on average, two years to build up immunity to a new school.

I think that it's getting worse, despite the availability of cold and flu remedies and antibiotics, because so many parents are going out to work: school makes for a convenient baby-sitting service, and so children are often bundled off to school even when they are ill.

I'm not feeling ill.  However, I have the sniffles.  And the end of term is only five days away. Teachers often find themselves going down with something nasty just in time for the holiday, almost as if the immune system decides to have a bit of a vacation as well... 

So, I half expect to get clobbered. Which made the following little snippet, courtesy of Newhousenewjob, even more amusing... Women are, apparently, suddenly becoming susceptible to "Man Flu" !

So, What Did Happen?

With all the stuff about Nativity plays being re-written to include Barbie & Ken and other weird and wonderful characters, I found this rather amusing...

Twitch of the mantilla to Patrick at Creative Minority Report...

Dignitas Personae

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has produced an Instruction, Dignitas Personae, on Certain Bioethical Questions.

You can download a copy of the document HERE, courtesy of the USCCB.  Anna Arco has given a good summary over at her website (twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Ray for spotting that) and John Smeaton has published Fr. John Fleming's review of the document HERE.

This is an excellent, and much-needed, summary and explanation of the Church's position on IVF and cloning.  To be honest, it is stating the blindingly obvious, but, while most people have an instinctive distrust of cloning, many people do not actually realise that IVF is banned by the Church, and many of those who do know the teaching are unclear as to why the Church would be against a procedure that helps couples to have babies.

A Distinct Lack Of Christmas Cheer...

I am not a happy bunny.

I had heard that, in a break with tradition, Royal Mail had decided to produce both religiously-themed and secular stamps for Christmas this year, rather than just producing one lot and alternating each year between religious and secular themes. They made quite a big thing of how good they were being in listening to customers...

So, when I bought my Christmas stamps, I particularly requested the religious ones. Unfortunately, they were "sold out." I commented on the popularity of the religious stamps, and asked for ordinary, non-Christmas stamps, as I really didn't want to plaster the Genie of the Lamp all over my cards.

They were also "sold out."

Since when does a Post Office run out of stamps??

I decided to opt instead for second class Christmas stamps, after checking that I had plenty of time before the last posting date. They only had the pantomime ones. Getting ever so slightly frustrated, I asked for books of the ordinary second class stamps.

They were, you guessed it... sold out.

It was finally acknowledged that they did have sheets of ordinary second class stamps, but they weren't the self-adhesive type.

Just as well that I quite like the taste of stamp glue. Better get licking.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Rosary Meme...

Puella Paschalis has tagged me for this unusual (and blissfully short) meme. 

Post a picture of 3 of your most special and beautiful rosaries and tell us why they are special to you. Then pass it through to three of your fellow bloggers who will pick their three rosaries and so on. And maybe it will be a nice gesture to pray a special intention for the three persons you "gave" the rosary to the next time you pray a rosary...

My initial reaction was that, as a result of giving "spare" rosaries away, I didn't have three rosaries to photograph. However, when I stopped to have a look, I discovered that I didn't have three different rosaries.

I have this one in my pocket most of the time. I like the colour, and the fact that each bead is moulded into the shape of a rose. But, most of all, I like the fact that it has a small vial of water from Lourdes. I like to carry my rosary loose, as I don't want the bother of having to take it out of a pouch... as a result, I find that my rosaries often break.  I'll try to fix the "current" one a few times, and then I buy another one (I figure that I'm supporting the rosary market by doing this!) But, as I like the connection with Lourdes, I tend to buy the same style of rosary over and over...

This is the rosary I keep on the shelf in my car. I don't want to drape it from the rear-view mirror because it would be a distraction when I'm driving. It's one of the ACN rosaries, blessed by the Holy Father. The way I drive, I figure I need all the help I can get. It also proves to be a good conversation piece when I get my car cleaned.

I couldn't find another different rosary.  I have one by my bed, and another in my handbag, but they're both the same as the one in my pocket... but, to prove that I have got more than two rosaries...

So, now I'm going to tag three people.

1.  Karen (because she has nobbled me several times before, often in sneaky, underhand ways!)

2.  The Mother of This Lot (I'm sure she'll have a few stashed away somewhere.)

3.  Phil (to prove that there are no hard feelings after he gave in to pressure from Karen!!)

Petition...

A week ago (or thereabouts) Phil at Pellegrinaggio asked me to advertise a petition to persuade Virgin Media to carry EWTN on its cable service. Unfortunately, I was distracted by events (mainly my renewal of vows!)

However, better late than never... You can sign the petition by clicking HERE.

Sometimes I Feel Like This...

...generally, I feel like this as the awful realisation dawns upon me that I've volunteered to do something, and it's a really bad idea...

Confused...

I thought Halloween was on the 31st October.  Apparently not, as this little bunch of trick-or-treaters have just crawled out of the woodwork... in full costume, too!

I wonder who the token male is... he really ought not to be allowed out in public, being of unsound mind (probably caused by too many illegal substances... I mean, get a load of the collar on his yellow shirt... not to mention the Dalek fixation... that is just soooooooo sad!)

Twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Z.

Feast Of The Immaculate Conception

One of my favourite feasts, particularly as it sorts the men out from the boys, so to speak... in other words, it is a stumbling block for unbelievers, but, for us who believe...

;-)

Favourites Meme

I have been tagged for this by Phil.  I'd be flattered, only I learned that he only picked me because Karen said he had to... so now I'm sulking...

I doubt that any of my choices will surprise anyone who has read more than two of my blog posts. So, in no particular order...

1.  The Extraordinary Form of Mass.  I love Mass anyway, but Mass according to the Usus antiquior is like Mass with knobs on. Especially if there's lots of incense. 

2.  Pope Benedict XVI.  I agree with the Curt Jester: if JPII deserves to be called John Paul the Great, then Benedict XVI ought to be known as Benedict the Pretty Awesome Also! And Summorum Pontificum just rocks.

3.  Chocolate. No explanation needed.

4.  Cats.  The four-legged, bewhiskered variety rather than the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

5.  Baileys.  It's not really alcoholic. It's cream. And cream is made from milk. Milk is good for you: all that calcium!

6.  Coffee. This isn't just one of my favourite things, this is practically a necessity.  

Ok, so now, who to tag...?

1. Leutgeb, because Karen said I had to.

2. Fr. Ray Blake, because he hates memes.

3. The Curt Jester, because he's cool!

4. The Catholic Caveman, because I haven't tagged him in a while.

5. Ttony, because he's there.

6. Paulinus, because his take on life is amusingly different (you have to have a certain warped mentality to come up with those bus adverts!)

There are so many others I want to tag, but I've used up my six... so, if you want to have a go, consider yourself tagged and drop me a note in the com-box.

A Sense Of Vocation...

Later this morning I am going to renew my vows.  I do this each year, even though I don't have to, because it helps to remind me that I have chosen to live my life as a single woman living and working in the world. Otherwise, because I have no "official" standing as a Religious or consecrated person, there might be a temptation to view my life in the single state as a sort of "default" option, that I'm single because I haven't married... the single life, as a vocation of choice outside Religious life or the Priesthood, doesn't often get mentioned.

In fact, the reality is that I felt a distinct call from God to make a sacrifice of my life, and dedicate it to Christ and his Church. It wasn't an easy decision to take, to relinquish all hopes of children and a family of my own, but I thank God for all the many blessings he has bestowed upon me since I first took my vows. 

Please say a prayer for me today, that I may be faithful.

Propaganda...

John Smeaton has a review on his blog, written by Fiorella Nash, of the Family Planning Association's DVD promoting abortion as a method of family planning.

It was very interesting to read how the young people on the DVD were all in favour of abortion. Strangely enough, despite working in a non-Catholic state school, this is not actually my experience of young people's attitudes.

I have generally found that the girls are more vigorously opposed to abortion than the boys, and there is a distinct awareness that, to quote one teenager, "You're not pregnant with a bunch of cells, it a baby... that's so obvious!"

I find the fact that the FPA considered it necessary to produce their pro-abortion DVD as encouraging, though obviously I deplore the fact that they have done so...

I Really Couldn't Resist...

More Exam Answers...

None of these were from exams I have marked, sadly.  It would certainly have brightened up my day!