Christmas cards, lunar eclipse, skiing, carols and other stuff

Here is another old Christmas card, from 1908. This card also has one of the first Christmas Seal (supporting the Red Cross) on it, next to the postage stamp. I don’t see too many Christmas seals today, but a few decades ago, they were pretty popular. I have one more card to show, but I’ll save it for Christmas day. As for myself, I stopped sending out Christmas cards a few years ago and instead send out a long letter with a collage of photographs from the past year. I screen the photos; you never see one with me in a suit or any such thing. The photo of me writing while sitting on the canoe by the edge of the Au Sable River is one such photo for this year’s collage.

The lunar eclipse was eclipsed by clouds. This is the season of gray here in the Great Lakes regions. Mornings have come into being without a single hint of color, just a lightning gray that starts in the east and gradually covers the sky. We see not the sun or the moon, but last night I could tell that the moon was full and bright somewhere beyond the clouds. The best description for this world is in Comac McCarthy’s The Road. Although I love winter, I like it with more sunlight than we get here (I spent too much time out west).

I spent six hours Sunday afternoon and evening skiing with my daughter. She got herself some new racing skis (a great deal at a ski-swap) and I can tell I’m going to be in trouble. She’s fast and I am going to have to tune-up my skis (if not buy new ones) so I can keep up with her. When I got home last night, I could tell my legs aren’t as young as they used to be. My left knee hurt and my right calf had what could only be described as contractions! I’m better and even though I didn’t work out last night, I did play pickle ball.

A few posts ago I told you about my favorite Advent hymns. My favorite Christmas carol is “What Child is This?” The tune, Greensleeves, to which it is set, has been around for centuries (even mentioned by Shakespeare), although the words to the carol wasn’t pinned till the 19th Century. Originally it was an lost-love ballad sung in English pubs.

It looks like we’ll have a white Christmas, not because we’ve had so much snow but because it’s very cold what little we’ve had hasn’t gone anywhere. Christmas Eve will be for church, Christmas day will be for laying around and opening presents and taking naps by the fireplace.