A poem, some cookies and a Christmas tree.

Ode to Christmas

Season of lists and fake plastic trees,

Close bosom friend of twinkling fairy lights;

Conspiring with them how to clothe and dress

Glossy page magazine inspired parties,

To bend with baubles the artificial berry,

and fill all houses with bright, pomp and gaud,

To swell the baskets and fill the stores

With longings and wish-lists, yet money problems in thought.

And still more, late hour shopping to keep the elves on their toes,

Until, they think the stockings will never cease supplying,

For the mere stress forces over-brimmed middles to burst

their buckles under the strain of one to many puddings.

*

Yet who has not seen you in the memory of youth?

Sought ‘mongst the reclaimed yester-years of printed biscuit tins.

And there will find you sitting on a plain and simple hearth rug,

Ashes and embers gently warming frosted fingertips,

The long lost notes of carols lingering, mingling with

The soft scents of charred chestnuts curling round cobbled streets.

Gathered together the Christmas table laden

With warm cups of cider mulling past sorrow to forgetfulness

We hear the old songs and dance once again.

As slow drifts of snow accumulate the soft breathed vespers of wakeful stars.

Waiting upon the horizon of the night.

*

Where are the cries of the babe in the manger

The songs of Christmas birth, Where are they?

While yonder star sheds a ray of joy,

the ripeness of the sun casts red glow upon the mountainside.

Gradually, merging, the star and the sun slowly become one, single golden halo of light .

Tis true, the star, may only set in to the deep once the red mists of the setting sun

whisper a scent of evening Myrrh before the frankincense of dawn.

And humble shepherds , are first to hear another lamb, bleating from hilly borne.

While the bells of decked halls cease their chime,

Against the silence of a lowly stable,

And the song of an angel rising in the sky.

Poem by Emmy.

We have been studying Keats's "Ode to Autumn" and I thought it would be interesting to do a poem about Christmas using the original as a template. I think it turned out really well!

We've been finishing up our Advent Lap books today we have also been making and baking lot's of Christmas goodies. Emmy has been crocheting a snowflake from this fun and simple pattern kindly shared by this lovely lady.

It is currently pinned to the carpet in my bedroom away from little toes! I think that the technical term is blocking but I'm not very good at those technical terms! All I know is that liddle fingers and toes must be kept far far away from it.

We baked up lots of different cookie flavours. mocha spice, cocoa crackle and carrot cake crumble.
And then it was time for our own little bit of tinsel and bauble!