1st January 2021
I have 3 reasons for celebrating today
1. Happy New Year to you all
And thank you to those who have read and commented on my blog over the last year. All your encouragement is much appreciated. With more than 65,000 visits, I feel that my words are getting out there in some way or other. Please keep the comments coming, especially if you have any ideas or suggestions to make. I think seriously about every comment I get knowing that they're rarely given lightly.
If you would like to be a guest writer on my blog and have anything you would like to be published please do let me know.
How are you going into 2021?
Are you fearful, bringing with you anxieties from 2020, that strange year that most people want to run from as quickly as possible? Are you able to leave behind those worries and start this year with a clean page, a new chapter of your life?
Myself, I found so much joy last year that I can only hope that, in some ways, 2021 brings me at least the same again. Obviously, I don't mean that I don't also hope that we come out of the pandemic, of course I do. But it was because of the pandemic that I found myself at my computer and gave myself the permission, at last, to call myself a writer. Having a short story published half way through the year helped too.
So, I wish you blessings for 2021 the Gaelic way:
May your giving hand never fail you.
May we all be alive at this same time next year.
May the Lord keep you in the palm of His hand, and never close His fist too tight!
May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live!
May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.
2 Happy 8th Day of Christmas
Do you still have decorations up, or has your tree been packed away since the evening of the 25th having been up since the middle of November?
Those same people were then fed up with the Christmas tree and desperate to take it down as soon as possible. Ok, kids we've had the presents let's take the tree down.
In our house on the other hand we rarely put the tree up before the week before. The first thing to appear is the advent wreath four weeks before Christmas. The crib comes next about two weeks before.
With the tree only decorated only a few days in advance of the day itself, and sometimes I leave it for Christmas Eve, none of us are ready to see it go as early as St Stephen's Day ( Boxing Day) and are eager to keep celebrating for the whole twelve days.
This year the 1st January was very different for us. Usually we have a family get together when we do Christmas Day all over again, even with crackers and Christmas pudding. But today we all ate in our own homes, gathering in the afternoon for a Zoom family Christmas quiz. And what a time we had. The competition was fierce . Each small (?) family group had five questions to ask. As we went through them it was clear that many would be repeated because others had them on their list. A scramble then to get more to add to out list. There was an art competition for all ages, a word game where we had to race around the house finding items that began with all the letter of the words Jingle Bells. The children were great at this, running for eggs out of the fridge and grabbing pens for the letter i for ink. There was so much laughing that in the middle of it all I was in tears, thanking God for them all. We may not have seen them in person and that was sad. I'd like to have had hugs. But we did have the best of times and it will be remembered. More shananigans have been planned for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it all.
3 The Feast of Mary Mother of God.
This is one of my favourite feastdays. Hubby and I went to Mass this morning. It was lovely to see the church full ( well as full as it can be with the restrictions).
We even sang the Salve Regina at the end.
What did you do on the first day of 2021?
First day, i went to work as usual. It's okay, it keeps me busy and out of trouble.
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