This image is from the 1881 children's book Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Sent into the Swiss Alps to live with her grandfather, the young orphan Heidi is as friendly and outgoing as he is aloof and standoffish. She has become friends with Peter the goatherd as well as his mother and grandmother, and frequently visits them at their home further down the mountain. Once winter comes, however, Heidi can't get through the snow and she worries about not visiting Peter's grandmother who is blind and housebound. To her delight, her grandfather brings out a sled, bundles her up warmly, and takes her sliding down the mountain to the goatherd's house. He leaves her there and trudges back up the mountain, promising to return for her after her visit. As Heidi found out soon after her arrival on the mountain, her grandfather's bark is worse than his bite.
Comments
After church this morning, I went to my parents' place for Sunday dinner. While there, one of my sisters dug out the old karaoke machine to use at the Christmas party for the youth group at her church. Of course she and one of my other sisters had to try it out, to make sure it still worked. They put on the Christmas karaoke CD and sang a couple of songs, and then Baby, It's Cold Outside came on. Immediately my sister called me over to join them: "Let's stick it to The Man!" Later in the afternoon, I went out to my brother's church to watch their Christmas production. One of my nieces was in the children's choir, pictured below: The play was really good, alternately funny and heartwarming, with a great message. The picture below is from the beginning of the play, when the protagonist is yelling at the "hooligan" carollers to get off his lawn: Later I went over to my sister's place and helped her set up her tree. She's got one with a really nice shape. The tree skirt is one I sewed for her a few years ago: After this, some more of the family showed up and we ended up watching the Little House On The Prairie episode A Christmas They Never Forgot. This wouldn't have been my first choice, but a couple of the other girls always insist on watching it during Christmas season. In this episode, everybody comes to the Ingalls' homestead for dinner on Christmas eve, a severe snowstorm starts and so they all have to spend the night. After the kids go to bed, the adults sit at the table telling stories of Christmases past. One of these stories uses a clip from the pilot episode of the show- when Mr. Edwards met Santa Claus, but the rest were filmed new for this episode and include stories from Caroline, Almonzo, and Hester Sue about childhood Christmases. The only one of these to actually be found in the book is the one about Mr. Edwards, which is in Little House On The Prairie, but the snow reaching the level of the upstaits window as it does in this show occurred in a chapter in The Long Winter. Related Posts: We had our concert last night and it went really well- and I did manage to get into the Christmas spirit for it: music has a way of doing that to me. Though I have to say, from the distance that this picture was taken, you can't really see the grey ombre of the new scarves and the older white ones would have been perfectly serviceable... Not that I'm bitter, or anything. One of the fun songs we did last night was Noel, a piece by Todd Smith written in Kituba, an African dialect. Here are the lyrics and their English translation: Noel, Noel Yesu me kwisa ku zinga ti beto Noel,Noel Yesu me kwisa ku zinga ti beto Kana nge zola ku zaba mwana Nge fwiti kwisa ku fukama Kana nge zola ku zaba mwana Nge fwiti kwisa ku fukama Translation: Noel, Noel Jesus has come to live with us Noel, Noel Jesus has come to live with us If you want to know the child You have to come kneel If you want to know the child You have to come kneel And here's the song being performed by a mass choir a few years ago:
|
About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
Fun SitesOdds & Ends |