Advent Flickr: Snow Monsters Come Out To Play, originally uploaded by seawallrunner.
Following on from yesterday’s snow picture, today’s advent calendar picture from the Flickr selection is this one of ‘snow monsters’ taken in the wonderful city of Vancouver. Doesn’t it make you feel like it’s Christmas? I can almost smell the mulled wine. Fancy a glass?
Advent Flickr: Jamie Enjoys Herself, originally uploaded by Pink Cloud. Behind Musak’s Christmas Advent picture fest today is this great show of people in the snow.
Now, one of the things we are all wishing for is a white Christmas. It’s one of those thoughts that makes the whole season feel special. Will it? Won’t it. Really, none of us wants snow, and does it really matter if it snows on that day? But it’s all part of the season’s magic.
Advent Flickr: “holiday” tree, originally uploaded by wcityw.
I admit it. I love Christmas, and I have no shame in saying that. I just find myself grinning at all the decorations around town. Even those houses with too many lights on and that seem to be using half the power from the national grid make me smile. It’s such a shame that I even have to get up and go to work at all. I could wander round looking at all the advent calendars and jolly Santas! There’s no humbug here.
Christmas is coming, and I am a bit of a sucker for it, but I have to say that the lights on Regents Street, London, do nothing for me. Perhaps I just haven’t seen them in the right conditions – a cold, damp, grey London afternoon is not conducive to enjoying the exterior lighting. It’s the Disney tie-in with The Incredibles that alarms me. Sure, I see that Disney get the promotion and somebody gets some money for the lights, but – really – what has it to do with Christmas? Or maybe it’s just that I missed Busted switch them on.
I am in Javea on Spain’s Costa Blanca for Christmas. It’s very different yet very similar. I have family around me. We had turkey and all the trimmings and opened presents around a (paper) tree. We have plenty of (cheap, Spanish) wine, Christmas pudding and mince pies. The sun, however, is shining, and we can sit outside and enjoy the warmth (if there is a sheltered spot from the wind).
The usual grey skies and frost of a British Christmas Day are part of the experience for me and have been all my life. The sun and the warmth were a little disorienting at first. Now, of course, I realise Christmas is still the same.
Happy Christmas!
The Oxford Street/Regent Street camera at the BBC is not showing anything. The Centre Point/New Oxford Street camera shows a decidedly empty central London. I suspect it’s nothing like that when I get there in an hour!
And all this despite the fact that I’ve ordered nearly all my presents online this year.
Can you believe it’s December? Is Christmas a joyful time, or not? Over at ‘Tis The Season, the sisters help you through your seasonal worries. I haven’t got an advent calendar yet, but I did find a potted history of them here.