In the Bleak Midwinter
Our days are dwindling down. According to the weather app, the sun comes up around 8 a.m. and will be going down at 3:54. And once it comes up, it is a little while before it actually gets light. On the sunset side, it seems to darken at around 2 to 2:30 in the afternoon and we have a couple of hours of deepening twilight.
It has drizzled rain on and off throughout the day. There is something comforting about listening to the rain.....there is a steady downpour outside right now.
We spent our morning in church. SK spoke again in the 2nd Ward and did a fine job. Both wards had a lot of Christmas music and messages. One of our young missionaries is very gifted on the violin and she and one of the YSAs played "The Piano Guys" version of Come Emmanuel. If you would like to hear the Piano Guys playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc It is beautiful, and the young people who played it in church were wonderful.
We have a lot of visitors in the 1st Ward since people often come to visit Oxford for just a week or even a weekend. I met quite a few new people. It is always fun. I have determine that I will always put something in the crockpot in the morning on Sundays so that we can invite someone to dinner. We'll see how that goes.
In the evening, we traveled an hour away to our stake Christmas concert. It was well worth the drive in the rain. The program was mostly music, with short messages about the Savior between hymn/songs. It was all very uplifting. It was warm and full of the Christmas spirit. When the stake president got up to make his closing remarks, there was a brilliant flash of lightening and then a long, low, loud roll of thunder. Five minutes later there was more lightening and thunder and then a burst of rain pelting the windows as though the rain was being driven sideways.
The choir sang "In the Bleak Midwinter." I heard it sung three times today! I love that song. For a beautiful beautiful beautiful rendition by Sissel, a wonderful Norwegian singer, click on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAgEt6sCMA
It was a perfect way to end the concert, except that the real ending was when we went into the cultural hall for refreshments. They were small pies - about 3 possibly 4 bites. They had been purchased at a local grocery store. I am going to have to get some for Christmas. They came in black currant, apple (delicious!) and mincemeat. (I am now a believer in mincemeat.)
Then it was a hour to get home through fairly heavy rain.
For Christmas day I have been inviting all of the YSAs who will be in town, all the young missionaries, and anyone else from the wards who will be alone to come for any amount of time and just eat and play games, listen and sing to Christmas music, and maybe even watch a Christmas movie or two.
We'll be in London all day until late in the evening of the 24th, so I'll have to be prepared by the end of the 23rd. It will be a great day. Maybe it will rain. 😊
It has drizzled rain on and off throughout the day. There is something comforting about listening to the rain.....there is a steady downpour outside right now.
We spent our morning in church. SK spoke again in the 2nd Ward and did a fine job. Both wards had a lot of Christmas music and messages. One of our young missionaries is very gifted on the violin and she and one of the YSAs played "The Piano Guys" version of Come Emmanuel. If you would like to hear the Piano Guys playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc It is beautiful, and the young people who played it in church were wonderful.
We have a lot of visitors in the 1st Ward since people often come to visit Oxford for just a week or even a weekend. I met quite a few new people. It is always fun. I have determine that I will always put something in the crockpot in the morning on Sundays so that we can invite someone to dinner. We'll see how that goes.
In the evening, we traveled an hour away to our stake Christmas concert. It was well worth the drive in the rain. The program was mostly music, with short messages about the Savior between hymn/songs. It was all very uplifting. It was warm and full of the Christmas spirit. When the stake president got up to make his closing remarks, there was a brilliant flash of lightening and then a long, low, loud roll of thunder. Five minutes later there was more lightening and thunder and then a burst of rain pelting the windows as though the rain was being driven sideways.
The choir sang "In the Bleak Midwinter." I heard it sung three times today! I love that song. For a beautiful beautiful beautiful rendition by Sissel, a wonderful Norwegian singer, click on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAgEt6sCMA
It was a perfect way to end the concert, except that the real ending was when we went into the cultural hall for refreshments. They were small pies - about 3 possibly 4 bites. They had been purchased at a local grocery store. I am going to have to get some for Christmas. They came in black currant, apple (delicious!) and mincemeat. (I am now a believer in mincemeat.)
Then it was a hour to get home through fairly heavy rain.
For Christmas day I have been inviting all of the YSAs who will be in town, all the young missionaries, and anyone else from the wards who will be alone to come for any amount of time and just eat and play games, listen and sing to Christmas music, and maybe even watch a Christmas movie or two.
We'll be in London all day until late in the evening of the 24th, so I'll have to be prepared by the end of the 23rd. It will be a great day. Maybe it will rain. 😊
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