(Biggest thing: the stand-in preacher was....more fundamentalist in his style....than what we are used to).
And it was just a lot of work. I think I did just about everything that could be done at the lunch at different points: cutting and serving food, "running" (like: refilling the water pitchers when needed), washing dishes (we have a big industrial type washer for the things people eat off of, but the serving dishes have to be hand washed).
It was just...hard. Three hours hard. I'm tired. And I even left while one last lone woman was still eating (she had some kind of tremor and was eating slowly and was also talking to people as she ate). I finally begged off as I had to get to the pharmacy to get my monteleukast refill (would otherwise run out over break and they warn you off of stopping it abruptly)
Also tomorrow will be hard. Bell choir is performing, and while that's fine, I'm also eldering and teaching Sunday school so it will be hectic. The biggest thing though is the pastor-parish committee meeting in the afternoon. Yes, I know this is the new board moderator's idea of "let's just have short routine meetings because then any issues can be headed off before they become big issues" and that's an admirable idea but....the last couple of these I have been at (several ministers ago) were not fun; back in, I think it was 2015? I wrote about how I left a meeting in tears? It was one of those. People were yelling at each other. Yes, they were inappropriate but it was still upsetting and my only response in that kind of situation is to cry because I am constitutionally incapable of yelling back.
I'm a little older now though not much tougher though now I think my plan would be to get up, sweep out, and as I was at the door turn back and say, "When you can interact without shouting, call me, I will be at home" and just go home. I don't anticipate that but I have a history of bad meetings so I *dread*.
(I still hear the voice of the counselor I went to briefly in college: "You're exceptionally good at *dreading* things, aren't you?" Yes. True. But I've never been particularly good at being otherwise; I think in a sick way "dreading" has helped me because it means I overprepare and I am ready for the worst possible situation, and so often when that does not happen, I am irrationally grateful.)
Anyway. I ran to the pharmacy on the way home and got my prescription. Then ran to the Lowe's next door - needed batteries for the window candles, and super glue (I broke my "gingerbread house Snoopy" ornament - Woodstock came off - and I am trying to fix it though at this point it doesn't look good; the plastic looks like the wrong kind for superglue to help; it just got kind of melty and if it doesn't set back up later it won't work*)
(*I contemplated heating a short needle in a candle and melting it into Woodstock and then melting the other end into the house, but that might be even worse.)
And I wound up also buying myself a treat:
I don't NEED more ornaments, but I can find room for these, and they're so cute. And they're made in Poland! Which kind of amazes me because I don't remember the last time I saw something like this that wasn't made in either China or Mexico, and I wonder if maybe Poland's craft-work industry is coming back, or if some trade changes have made their stuff more accessible to us, or whatever. I don't know. It just kind of delighted me to see that. (I remember when I was a kid and Polish, German, or Czech - (Czechoslovakia in those days) glass ornaments were present in shops).
Yes, the style is more Scandinavian than true Polish, but I still like them.
I just...I remember that kind of thing from when I was a kid. German-made, or some other country "over there" glass balls in the Christmas Shops (usually a corner of the O'Neil's or other department store converted over for that come Thanksgiving) and going some years to buy a few to make up for what had got broken in the past.
And yes. I find myself always getting nostalgic at Christmas, and wanting to buy things, or make foods, or do things that remind me of my childhood. Childhood Christmases for me were HAPPY. They were often the happiest point of the year - not just the acquisitiveness (but I have to admit it: the idea of getting a new toy was big) but also the fact that I was getting to do stuff - do stuff with my parents (going out to find a tree) or do fun stuff at school or at church, the decorating, baking cookies, specials on the tv, all of that.
And I admit, as a sad old tired adult who realizes no adult Christmas (in terms of gifts at least) will ever compare to those childhood ones, I still seek out the things that give me that hint of nostalgia.
(I bet Generation X will be, in some ways, the biggest suckers for "retro" things from their childhoods. I know I am. Ask my vintage My Little Pony collection...)
And I admit, a line from an old poem popped into my head: "And girls in slacks remember Dad/ and oafish louts remember Mum" and I had to look it up, and it's one of Sir John Betjeman's. And there's a lot to chew on, mentally, there, but....I do think the idea of trying to make our lives a little nicer, a little brighter, a little more *fun,* and sometimes maybe that involves remembering things of childhood, I don't know.
And yes:
"No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine"
But I have to admit: red and white glass balls made in Poland, and memories of getting that one toy I REALLY wanted, and nice cookies, and all of that....it's nice, too. And I think we can appreciate BOTH at Christmas time.
(And apparently "girls in slacks" was a reference to women working in munitions plants in WWII...)
Edited to add: You can even hear the man reading his poem, thanks to YouTube:
In some ways, YouTube can be a real cesspit, but if you look carefully, you can find all kinds of amazing and wonderful things. I love Poets Reading Their Poetry YouTube.
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