Last week was Hannah's first dip into the waters of that fine seasonal tradition, the Christmas program (or concert, as they are called at her school). The week began with her role as Angel No. 1 in the Pantygwydr Baptist Church Sunday school classes' program, where she and the other angels happen upon the Bethelehem Tourist Information Centre in their search for a rehearsal space. Hannah's lines: "We have to find somewhere" and "Aaaaaghhh! ... um, I mean, fear not!"

The Brynmill Primary School Christmas concert followed on Wednesday, where Hannah was one of the narrators in the story of Humph the Camel's Christmas. Narrators were allowed to choose their own costume and, hey, we picked Angel again. This time her lines were: "Shepherds were looking after their sheep on the hillside" and "They [the camels] ate and ate and ate and drank and drank and drank until their humps were nice and big." Photos are in the gallery, check it out. Now with video footage--it's a QuickTime movie. Just a few seconds "backstage" and Hannah's lines.

Many thanks to Jo Long for lending me a sewing machine and a length of curtain to make the angel costume. I'm quite proud of it.

We're staying close to home over the holidays, mostly due to an amazing amount of illness in the family. I've had a cold (well, probably a series of colds) since the end of November, Cliff's caught a mild cold, and Hannah has had a couple severe colds which have kicked her asthma into high gear. Just this week she fell victim to a stomach bug, and is just now recovering from that.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, y'all!

Christmas is coming, and the distance isn't too painful this time of year. Just like home, we are inundated with commercials for toys, perfume and electronic gadgets. The stores are more frenzied, and everyone has that glazed look of someone planning one event while wondering how to shoehorn attendance at two more events into their schedule. We get to learn all about Boxing Day, and I am going to pass on the British Christmas dinner tradition of brussels sprouts.

One nice difference here is the absence of Christmas music blasting from every store you step into; a few of the bigger stores play it, but not too loudly, and you don't hear enough to get thoroughly sick of it by December 10. Although someone let the Spice Girls record a cover version of the Waittresses' classic "Christmas Wrapping." I've got nothing against the Spice Girls, but trying to remake this, one of my favorite songs ever, is just plain wrong.

But the one thing that I will miss terribly this Christmas season is Cliff's departmental White Elephant party. Veterans of a few White Elephant parties spend the entire year looking for the perfect item to bring, unless they were the unfortunate recipients of the Epilady or some hideous "decorative" item, in which case they have waited all year to rewrap it and foist it on some unwitting party. Sometimes they even forget they have those little treasures tucked away... I think we had a bottle of watermelon Thunderbird for about 3 years before I found it in our basement and threw it back into play. But it truly becomes fun when people bring something genuinely desirable, 'cause that's when the claws come out and the real "negotiations" begin. So enjoy, MilDiv, we're with you in spirit!