Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Good King Wenceslas

I was trying to do a post every day until Christmas but travels and other things have kept me a little bit busy and I have only just now had a chance to do another post.  I'm sharing another Christmas favorite of mine! I love the song Good King Wenceslas and I'm surprised at how many people haven't heard it.




Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the feast of Stephen

When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Gift Wrapping Mishaps

Have you ever wrapped up the wrong gift? Or have you wrapped up a gift forgotten what it was or who it was for? Today's blog is about two such gift wrapping mishaps.

We started Christmas shopping pretty early this year.  So, my husband and I agreed that we would store all of our Christmas presents in the spare bedroom together so we wouldn't lose track of anyone's present.  When it came time to wrap them.  I took them all out in the living room, wrapped them up, and put a post-it note on the outside of what it was.  I couldn't remember who some of the presents were for, but I knew my husband would be able to tell me when he got home. 


So, after I wrapped up all of the gifts, I asked him who they were for.  One such gift was a navigation system.  I asked him, "Who is the GPS for?"  "Me." Since it was already wrapped I wrote, "To: Lee From: Lee" on it.  I'm not sure why it was with all of the other gifts.  But he just now had to unwrap it so that we could make our way up to North Carolina with an updated GPS.


Another story goes back about 12 years to when I was in high school.  I went over to my friend's house to exchange Christmas gifts.  Her family had not labeled all of their presents.  So she picked up a box and handed it to me.  We simultaneously unwrapped each of our gifts.  The box was a clothing box and I was excited about what I might find inside.  Until I uncovered an...


I thought to myself...hmmm..."I'm not sure why she got me an oven mitt, but oh well.  My mom said you should always be thankful."  After opening her present, she looked up to see me staring at my oven mitt.  "Thank you," I said as enthusiastically as I could manage.  "Oh my goodness!! That is the wrong gift," she replied.  Yes, a shirt that was meant for me got mixed up with an oven mitt that I think was for her aunt. I'm not a very good faker, but I tried my hardest to be thankful for that oven mitt at first!