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I'm dreaming of a soggy Christmas...
...but it was lovely anyway.
We went down to DC to visit my folks. Went to the zoo (which has not one, but two species of otter). Went to see the Christmas trees at the White House. They have one big tree that's actually living, and 54 (for each state and territory) little ones that are decorated by their state. The ornaments are all in plastic balls to keep them dry, which makes them look a little odd. Some were really cool, many were really lame. Some states had kids do crafts which were kind of neat. Others seemed to have forgotten about it and then frantically handed a bunch of random children some paper and glitter, which resulted in messy, nearly identical balls. Less neat. New Jersey had filled the balls with paper cranes, which I thought was really cool until I discovered that three other states had done exactly the same thing. A couple of states apparently just got a random merchant to fill the balls, which was tasteful yet soulless. I think my favorite was a quilting club that had made tiny, different quilts for each ball. Meanwhile, there was the big tree...which was awful. The poor thing was warpped in a net of lighting, which just made it look horribly trapped. And they had the ugliest plastic ornaments I've ever seen. It was hideous.
I went to midnight Mass with my folks. That was...umm...interesting. Very conservative parish. Very. Also, either their cantor or their music director or both should be fired. There were severe tempo issues - the organist would start at one tempo for the intro, and then the choir would come in at a different one, leaving the congregation to take four or five measures to figure out which tempo to sing at. It generally got sorted out, until they tried to do a slightly trickier piece. There's a second song called "Night of Silence" that can be sung at the same time as "Silent Night", and lines up beautifully. Well, the organ ended up playing at one tempo, the half of the choir singing one part came in a sixteenth note later on a different tempo, the other half was a bit offset from that and singing at a third tempo, and then there were the trumpets off in a happy land far from the first three tempos. The congregation kind of mumbled along before tapering off in confusion at the resulting cacaphony. That was the crowning disaster of the evening, but there were a couple other high/low points. There was the Kyrie Eleison which was done a cappella - except apparently the cantor has no sense of pitch. The organ would play the line, then the cantor would try to sing the line herself, only wander off through three different keys. The congregation would then try to sing the horror back to her. Or there were the two different songs which had both English and Latin verses, in which the choir would start in one language, and the cantor would start in the other before mumbling her way back into the language the choir was singing in. ("Adeste Fideles, laeti trimmhmumble, oh come ye...")
But there was the annual watching of the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol. And we watched the Christmas episode of Invader Zim as well. (Now Chuckro wants a chair made out of cheese and a table made out of cheese.) And there were glorious waffles and abundant Asti. And everybody liked their presents, and people who didn't expect to be surprised were. And the family generally got along, and we played board games, and the Eagles won. A good time was had by all, and there were many cookies. And really, what else can you ask from Christmas?
Oh, and my parents' new house is gorgeous.
We went down to DC to visit my folks. Went to the zoo (which has not one, but two species of otter). Went to see the Christmas trees at the White House. They have one big tree that's actually living, and 54 (for each state and territory) little ones that are decorated by their state. The ornaments are all in plastic balls to keep them dry, which makes them look a little odd. Some were really cool, many were really lame. Some states had kids do crafts which were kind of neat. Others seemed to have forgotten about it and then frantically handed a bunch of random children some paper and glitter, which resulted in messy, nearly identical balls. Less neat. New Jersey had filled the balls with paper cranes, which I thought was really cool until I discovered that three other states had done exactly the same thing. A couple of states apparently just got a random merchant to fill the balls, which was tasteful yet soulless. I think my favorite was a quilting club that had made tiny, different quilts for each ball. Meanwhile, there was the big tree...which was awful. The poor thing was warpped in a net of lighting, which just made it look horribly trapped. And they had the ugliest plastic ornaments I've ever seen. It was hideous.
I went to midnight Mass with my folks. That was...umm...interesting. Very conservative parish. Very. Also, either their cantor or their music director or both should be fired. There were severe tempo issues - the organist would start at one tempo for the intro, and then the choir would come in at a different one, leaving the congregation to take four or five measures to figure out which tempo to sing at. It generally got sorted out, until they tried to do a slightly trickier piece. There's a second song called "Night of Silence" that can be sung at the same time as "Silent Night", and lines up beautifully. Well, the organ ended up playing at one tempo, the half of the choir singing one part came in a sixteenth note later on a different tempo, the other half was a bit offset from that and singing at a third tempo, and then there were the trumpets off in a happy land far from the first three tempos. The congregation kind of mumbled along before tapering off in confusion at the resulting cacaphony. That was the crowning disaster of the evening, but there were a couple other high/low points. There was the Kyrie Eleison which was done a cappella - except apparently the cantor has no sense of pitch. The organ would play the line, then the cantor would try to sing the line herself, only wander off through three different keys. The congregation would then try to sing the horror back to her. Or there were the two different songs which had both English and Latin verses, in which the choir would start in one language, and the cantor would start in the other before mumbling her way back into the language the choir was singing in. ("Adeste Fideles, laeti trimmhmumble, oh come ye...")
But there was the annual watching of the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol. And we watched the Christmas episode of Invader Zim as well. (Now Chuckro wants a chair made out of cheese and a table made out of cheese.) And there were glorious waffles and abundant Asti. And everybody liked their presents, and people who didn't expect to be surprised were. And the family generally got along, and we played board games, and the Eagles won. A good time was had by all, and there were many cookies. And really, what else can you ask from Christmas?
Oh, and my parents' new house is gorgeous.