JustListenToMe’s Neighborhood

My daughter sent to me .... flowers in a ceramic pot!

First Day of Christmas one floral arangment in a ceramic pot!

The flowers arrived just at the right time to save Mr FD. I was instructing him to go out in the rain and finish mowing the front lawn. He was able to make a lucky escape as I told the Flower Delivery Guy that I loved him!

I share my flowers with all those people who can't make it to their Chrstmas destinations due to weather, illness, poverty, or wisdom! Enjoy.

Thank you, Daughter 2. It doesn't get you out of helping with the domestic duties when you arrive though!

For all those early travellers (is such a thing possible this year?) - In those famous words ...

My husband and I wish you a Merry Chrstmas!

Best Wishes from Mr FD, and more importantly, Best Wishes from Flamingo Dancer! 

I was following a mother with a small child sitting in the shopping trolley around the supermarket aisle. The little girl, about 3 or 4 years of age, was singing "Jingle Bells" as her mother shopped. Mum stopped and said "That is some very nice singing that you are doing"

The little girl replied very seriously, "Yes, it's a gift!"

I looked closely at the little girl, wondering if she was a Flamingo Dancer relative, but couldn't see any family resembelance. Love that attitude!

leaping lords, drummers drumming - I think I feel a headache coming on

Twelfth Day and Night – Twelve Drummers Drumming / Lords a leaping.

January 5^th. – Feast of Fools

Twelve - The 12 points of doctrine in The Apostle’s Creed

Leaping dancers were only performed by males and in pagan times were performed for the purposes of fertility, and for war. A good leaping dance was thought to psychologically prepare the men to go into battle. I don't know what it did for their fertility!

The Roman god of vegetation and war was Mars. Roman priests, with swords, performed a Satii ritual in which they leaped high to ensure that the corn crop grew.

In English tradition the leaping lords were probably morris dancers who performed between banquet courses. Twelve morris dancers, also armed with swords, would form dance patterns that ended with the swords coming together to form a Lock or Nut over the head of the Lord Of Misrule.

Other lords a leaping performed a dance, the gavotte, accompanied by a bagpipe and a drum

The day begins, like Christmas, with a dramatic religious service featuring the coming of the Three Kings. It had become traditional for the English king to make offerings at Mass of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to symbolize his connection with those kings and with Christ. This custom survived the Reformation.

The festivities were the most sumptuous of the year, filled with royal balls and parties. For Twelfth Day and Night among the common fold, a bean was baked into a cake and pieces distributed among the children and servants. Whoever found the bean was pronounced King of the Bean, and reigned for the rest of the day and night. If a pea was used as well, whoever found it became (or chose) the Queen of the Pea.

The Epiphany, the oldest of the Christmas feasts, is also known as Three Kings Day for the three magi who found the Christ Child after following a star to Bethlehem. It is celebrated on Jan. 6 and is the major holiday of the Christmas period in the Eastern Church.

Time for the Christmas tree and greenery to come down too. St. Boniface chopped down an oak tree, regarded as sacred by the Germanic pagans in an attempt to convert pagans to Christianity , and a fir tree sprang up from the stump, with its branches pointing heavenward. The apparent miracle and its interpretation gave the evergreen family of trees an unquestioned and permanent place in the constellation of natural Christian symbols.

The Twelve Days of Christmas song is a Twelfth night song  and sung by children as a "memory and forfeits" game. Whoever first forgets a line is out.

In many homes, they also played flapdragon or snapdragon. Players took turns picking raisins out of a dish of flaming brandy and popping them into their mouth. There were wagers on each person's chances of success – on surviving, I suspect!

Ordinary rural people enjoyed feasting, dancing, card playing, carol singing, storytelling, party games like hot cockles and shoeing the mare and attempting to bite an apple with a candle stuck in it hung on a string from the end of a stick. Oh how they loved dicing with immolation those hearty folk!

The twelve days of Christmas was a most welcome break for rural workers , which in Tudor times would have been the majority of the people. All work, except for looking after the animals, would stop, restarting again on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night.  Maybe that is also why we all hate Monday so much  - I mean Plough Monday, yippee!

The 'Twelfths' had strict rules, one of which banned spinning, the prime occupation for women. Flowers were ceremonially placed upon and around the wheels to prevent their use.

During the Twelve Days, people would have visited their neighbours, sharing and enjoying the traditional 'minced pye'. The pyes would have included thirteen ingredients, representing Christ and his apostles, typically dried fruits, spices and of course a little chopped mutton - in remembrance of the shepherds.

That’s it folks – over for another year! Diets start January 6th and the credit card balance will be due in February.

The Eleventh Day of Christmas : Eleven Pipers Piping  / or ladies dancing / bulls a-bleating / bears a-baiting

January 4th

The Eleven Pipers represent the Eleven Faithful Apostles

In centuries past guests were often entertained by musicians, dancers, jugglers, etc. as well as singing and dancing themselves. Bagpipes and their younger cousins the musette (an instrument similar to a bagpipe but the air for the sound came from bellows rather than blowing into the instrument) were popular instruments for dance music. While we usually associate the bagpipe with Scotland, they were also a common instrument in France as well. Since Queen Elizabeth I was succeeded by the Stuart kings of Scotland, bagpipes and other aspects of Scots culture were common among the upper classes in England as were elements of French culture due to intermarriage of the English and French nobility.

It has been reported that the members of the present British Royal Family are woken up at their Christmas retreat of Balmoral by pipers playing bagpipes outside their bedroom windows. What a jolly lot they must be!

During the reign of Elizabeth I archery was the only sport allowed on Christmas day. All others were banned. Archery was promoted as the lower classes were often archers in the army of the period and so to practise at the expense of all else was seen as a good way of building the nations defences

Throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas the Lord of Misrule reigns.  The Lord of Misrule is thought to have originated from benevolent Roman masters who allowed their servants to be the boss for a while. The Church entered the act by allowing a choirboy, elected by his peers, to be a Bishop during the period starting with St. Nicholas Day (6th December) until Holy Innocents Day (28th December). Within the period the chosen boy, symbolising the lowliest authority, would dress in full Bishop's regalia and conduct the Church services. Many of the great cathedrals adopted this custom including York, Winchester, Salisbury Canterbury and Westminster. Henry VIII  abolished Boy Bishops

The Lord of Misrule was appointed by all "persons of worship" including Lieutenants and Sheriffs of counties, and even bishops, to manage the merriment of the Twelve Days.

At the court and at the universities, Misrule was usually elected on St Thomas's Day, so there is plenty of time to plan. He then chooses officers for his Court of Misrule such as Marshal, Master of the Game, Constable, and Chief Butler. For Christmas 1561, the Lord of Misrule at the Inner Temple was Lord Robert Dudley.

On each of the twelve days of Christmas, his rule runs from evening until breakfast the next day. His duties consist consisting mainly of presiding over the feasting, games, and dancing.

At supper, the courtiers of Misrule are cried in to the hall with silly names like Sir Francis Flatterer, Sir Randall Rakabite of Rascall Hall in the County of Rakehell, Sir Morgan Mumchance, or Sir Bartholomew Balbreech of Buttocksbury. How amusing!

Remember The Pied Piper of Hamelin  by Robert Browning (1812-1889)? He has nothing to do with the Twelve Days of Christmas but he was a piper piping!

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rbrowning/bl-rbrown-pied.htm

Want a Christmas Pudding with a difference? Try it as a cocktail!

Christmas Pudding

• 1 ounce Drambuie
• 5 ounces Guiness beer
• 1 ounce Southern Comfort

Combine ingredients and serve in a red wine glass.

Read more at : Christmas Cocktail Recipes: These festive Christmas cocktail recipes will help you deck the hall http://partyfood.suite101.com/article.cfm/christmas_cocktail_recipes#ixzz0aKIaawKM

Daughters and I made gingerbread houses.

Building process

We started slowly

early settlers

but we may have got carried away ... just a little

it takes a village

 These were in Martha Stewart Lane :

Daughter1's monocolour period!

I kept waiting for an elf or a smurf to open the door and invite us in.

Anyone home?

1 comment

And honestly, we only ate a few ... or thirty.. of the decorations along the way.

Leaping Lords and Dancing Ladies and a wee drop of Wassail

Tenth Day of Christmas : Ten Lords a Leaping or / pipers piping / ladies dancing / bells a-ringing

January 3^rd.

Ten Lords a Leaping also represents the 10 Commandments.

After all the ladies have been dancing and the lords leaping, no doubt they felt the need for a refreshing drink.

Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with Christmas. Particularly popular in Germanic countries, the origins of the practice of wassailing are closely connected with the history of the wassail. The word 'Wassail' is derived from the Old Norse 'Ves heill', from whence came the Old English salutation 'Wes Hal', meaning 'Be In Good Health'. So, anything that can be done to help the trees produce a generous harvest is wholeheartedly encouraged and the skill and dedication of the 'Wassailers' is all important. When Wassailing was first discovered to be of benefit in England is not really known, but there is mention in a magazine, published in 1791, of "The custom with the Devonshire people to go after supper into the orchard with large quantities of cider, having roasted apples pressed into it".

Wassailing has two forms – groups who go out wassailing on cold evenings, and when they approached a door are offered a mug of warm cider or ale, and groups who visit orchards. The House-Visiting wassail, very much similar to carolling, is the modern practice of people going door-to-door singing Christmas carols. In modern times, it is most commonly known through reference in various traditional Christmas carols (e.g., "Here we come a-wassailing / among the leaves so green"). The Orchard-Visiting wassail refers to the practice of singing to trees in apple orchards in cider-producing regions of England to promote a good harvest for the coming year.

A wassail King and Queen lead the proceedings, and song, or a processional tune is played is sung from one orchard to the next. The wassail Queen is lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she places toast that has been soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift the tree spirits and to show them the fruits of what they created the previous year. The intention is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn.

An original incantation:

Here's to thee, old apple tree,

That blooms well, bears well.

Hats full,caps full,

Three bushel bags full,

An' all under one tree.

Hurrah! Hurrah!

 While this recipe, made in a crockpot, doesn't include eggs, which were often used in the recipes to ensure fertile apple tress, it will make your house smell beautiful!

Wassail Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours,

Ingredients:

• 1 Gallon apple cider
• 2 C. cranberry juice
• 1/2 C honey
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 oranges
• Whole cloves
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• Allspice
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• 3 cinnamon sticks (or 3 Tbs. ground cinnamon)
• 1/2 C - 1 C brandy (optional)

Preparation:

Set your crockpot to its lower setting, and pour apple cider, cranberry juice, honey and sugar in, mixing carefully. As it heats up, stir so that the honey and sugar dissolve. Stud the oranges with the cloves, and place in the pot (they'll float). Add the diced apple. Add allspice, ginger and nutmeg to taste -- usually a couple of tablespoons of each is plenty. Finally, snap the cinnamon sticks in half and add those as well.

Cover your pot and allow to simmer 2 - 4 hours on low heat. About half an hour prior to serving, add the brandy if you choose to use it.

The Wassail Song........... verses sung around the apple tree

Apple tree prosper, bud, bloom and bear,

That we may have plenty of cider

next year.

And where there's a barrel, we

hope there are ten,

That we may have cider when we

come again.

Chorus:-

With our wassail, wassail, wassail!

And joy come to our jolly wassail!

A-wassail, a-wassail! The Moon,            

she shines down;

The apples are ripe and the nuts

they are brown.

Whence thou mayest bud, dear old

apple tree,

And whence thou mayest bear, we

sing unto thee.

Chorus.......... .

Oh Mistress and Master, our wassail begin,

Please open your door and let us come in;

Besides all on earth you'll have

apples in store;

Pray let us come in for 'tis cold at the door.

Chorus.......

......and the verses sung at each homestead

Come fill up our wassail bowl full to the brim,

See, harnessed and garnished so neat and so trim,

Sometimes with laurel and some times with bays,

According to custom, to keep the old ways.

Chorus.........

Now for this gold liquor, to us,

that you bring,

We lift up our voices and merrily sing,

That all good householders, long may they remain,

And long to continue the same to maintain.

See you later people.

We leave soon to go to Sydney for the night then fly away in the morning.

Fun will be had, cocktails will be had, massages will also be had. And by the look of my glowing white legs I'd say a dose of sunburn may be had.

And I'm thinking by the look of my crazy hair I might come back with dreadlocks. Because I'm not taking a hair straightener and I'm not even going to dry it with the dryer. It can just go wild for the next week or so. Will pack plenty of hair elastics.

Me

So I wish all my friends and neighbours here on vox a very merry christmas. I'l think of you lot over there in the snow and sleet while I'm lying on my sun lounge soaking up some rays. And to all my aussie neighbours I hope the weather gods treat you well and you don't get a real scorcher for christmas day.

I think this is the first christmas, or even December, of my life that I haven't eaten ham. Can't say I'm missing it either.

Catch you on the flip side guys.

I have worms under my Christmas Tree! No, it is not some fresh tree brought in from the forest to brighten our Christmastime upon which a worm or two has hitchhiked a ride in a quest for adventure. It is an artficial tree and there are hundreds of worms. 500 to be exact - unless they are breeding and then there could be more!

We are giving The Boy a worm farm for Christmas. Well, it is a Worm Cafe, actually, to sound more cafe latte society. To go with this trendy Worm Cafe we bought a box of 500 worms.

And being Christmas I have wrapped the said 500 worms in Christmas wrap (it can be part of their Christmas lunch! The worms' lunch, not The Boy's! ) and placed it under our tree. I poked air holes in the wrap, so fear not.

So we have worms, I say worms, under our Christmas tree and The Boy is going to tell everyone after Christmas that his future parents-in-law gave him worms for Christmas.

I don't think anyone will be surprised.

....ladies dancing

The Ninth Day can be a little confusing because there are two quite common versions of the lyrics : nine ladies dancing or nine drummers drumming.

English town watchmen, known as waits, would patrol the town, watching for invaders or thieves, and crying out the time on the hour. Remember  clocks were only for the rich for many centuries! As time went by these watchmen often also became musicians and during Christmas time they were rewarded for their performances.

The drum was introduced to England following the Crusades, so their first introduction to the instrument was to Egyptian and Sumerian drums. Over the centuries they evolved into the drum that we see today, and became connected with marching, and especially marching into battle. The trumpet also developed a relationship with the drum and came to be used to introduce the arrival of courses during a banquet. Of course they are also used to announce the arrival of important people. (Hark, I think I here one now!) A skilled musician was expected to play the pipes and the tabor, a small drum. The pipes and drum were also known as the whittle and the dub (http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-whittle-and-dub.html )

I myself, prefer the picture nine ladies dancing, rather than drummer drumming. In Medieval times people would 'carole', that is, link hands in a line or a circle and sing as they danced to provide their own accompaniment.

Nine ladies dancing refers to The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit:

1) Love,

2) Joy,

3) Peace,

4) Patience,

5) Kindness,

6) Goodness,

7) Faithfulness,

8) Gentleness, and

9) Self-control.

Galatians 5:22

Though the nine in the Ninth Day of Christmas has also been described as the nine choirs of angels, so it looks as though the ninth day is a bit of a day of choice : ladies, drummer. Fruit of the Holy Spirit  or choirs of angels.

Milton wrote of fairy ladies dancing upon the hearth at the birth of a child as being indicative of good luck.

“Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth”.

The Italian court custom of presenting grand costumed balls or 'Masques', which had spread to France and Spain in the 16th century, spread on to England in the 17th century. Thus, in the year 1604 Anne of Denmark celebrated her Christmas in England with an Hampton Court Masque. According to contemporary Samuel Daniel, the Queen and her ladies were dressed as 'Twelve Goddesses':

ü preparing themselves to their dance whichü they began to the music of the viols and lutes, placed on one side of the hall. Which dance being performed with great majesty and Arte, consisting of divers straines, fram'd unto motions circular, square, triangular, with other proportions exceeding rare and full of variety; the Goddesses made a pause, casting themselves into a circle, whilst the Greaces againe sang to the musicke of the Temple, and prepared to take out the lords to dance. With whom, after they had performed certain Measures, Galliards, and Curantos, Iris againe comes and gives notice of their pleasure to depart: whose speech ended, they drew themselves again into another short dance, with some few pleasant changesü

Dance Steps : Twelve Days of Christmas : Progressive circle dance

For more Christmas Dance steps : http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/xmas3.htm#Twelve%20Days%20of%20Christmas