We should be back from Toms River by now, but in case we’re not, here’s a rather charming video for you.
Think this guy has enough guinea pigs? But he does run a guinea pig sanctuary. And what can you say? Anybody who takes the trouble to make his guinea pigs a great big Christmas tree from kale, apples, peppers and carrots, just for them to gobble up as a festive dinner–well, that’s someone I’d like to meet.
About now we should be settling down to Christmas dinner with my brother and sister. While we do that, here’s another carol for you.
Gaudete, sung by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, with the London Cello Orchestra–“Gaudete, Christus est natus ex Maria.” In English: “Rejoice! Christ is born of Mary.”
Yes, I think we can rejoice in those glad tidings!
If all goes well with this post–and it hasn’t so far: not by a long shot!–you’ll be reading it as Patty and I zip down the Garden State Parkway for Christmas dinner at my sister’s house.
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We’ll probably be back before dark, because I don’t like to drive on the Parkway at night and the local traffic’s even worse–all the nimrods cruising around with their high-beams on, trying to blind you.
I hope some of you are able to visit here today, and enjoy a carol or two.
The carol which I am attempting to post above is Charles Wesley’s Light of the World, sung by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. It’s one of my favorite hymns, and I’m bumbling around with it today. Let’s just see if I can get it posted, shall we?
We really must get going if we want to be in time for Christmas dinner; but my wife would never forgive me if I postponed putting up this picture of a baby sloth, and then couldn’t find it again. So here it is now. Patty’s crazy about baby sloths.
Did you know they were quite so little? No bigger than the average teddy bear.
Oooooh, fap! Getting late! Merry Christmas, and see you all later.
![The Cellar Beneath the Cellar (Bell Mountain, 2) (Bell Mountain Series) by [Duigon, Lee]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fPPSpV78L._SY346_.jpg)
That was a nice surprise, five years ago, to get a Silver Medal in the Global E-Book Awards for The Cellar Beneath the Cellar, which is Book No. 2 of my Bell Mountain series.
Sorry, didn’t know what I ought to re-run today. For 15 minutes this morning, maybe a little more, our neighborhood was immersed in a noise such as would be made by the galaxy’s most powerful car horn with a dead body leaning on it. Couldn’t hear yourself think! It has only just stopped.
I love Kirk DouPonce’s cover for Cellar. You can’t tell me Ellayne isn’t real! How else could Kirk have painted her exact likeness?
Oh! Merry Christmas, everybody!
Requested by Phoebe–sorry, couldn’t find one with both lyrics and a nice sound–Infant Holy, Infant Lowly is originally a Polish Christmas hymn. Sung here by the choir at King’s College, Cambridge.
You’d almost think this video was produced by dogs, under a title like “Funny Humans.” I mean, really–we bring these weird little robots into the home, and what’s a dog supposed to make of it? They know those things are unnatural. They know they have to protect the humans from the consequences of their ill-considered actions. These confounded things move around and make creepy noises. Of course the dog is going to bark! And maybe bite, too.
It’s a full-time job, looking after humans.
Hoo, boy, am I tired! But the duck is in the oven, our Christmas tree is trimmed, there’s Christmas music playing in the background, and finally I get my nice big glass of iced tea–aaaaah! Hits the spot!
The problematic little tree that we selected has turned out to be positively beautiful. I’d post a picture, but Patty’s camera has stopped working. I wish I could post pictures of some of your Christmas trees, but I have no idea how to go about it.
Anyhow, it was two hours-plus of up and down, trial and error, hanging ornaments from curtain rods, etc. There are ornaments that have to go just in the right place on the tree, or you don’t get full value from them. Hey, I minored in Art in college, I know what I’m doin’.
And yes, the cats get some of the duck. They’ve been as good as gold with the tree so far.
G’day, everybody–g’day before Christmas, in fact. Byron the Quokka here, to tell you that no, our Second Annual Christmas Carol Contest isn’t over, so keep requesting carols. Oh–that picture up there, those are my cousins, Felix and Agatha, who are trying to predict which carol will be the winner. Well, so far it looks like the one that got 44 views on Dec. 12. But we shall see!
The winner of the contest will get an autographed copy of Bell Mountain No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever, when it comes out, which’ll probably be sometime early next year. I know some quokkas who are afraid to read it because they saw the cover and they don’t want Ellayne and Dulayl to get eaten by the giant hyena. I confess to a wee bit of trepidation, myself!
Keep those carols coming, mates!
(See? Exciting, isn’t it? Especially for Ellayne!)
That’s that, no more nooze today! A lot of wicked people are out there trying to stop Christmas, or at least taint it with their wickedness–but it’s here anyway: Christmas, 2019. There are stories I could report today, but they’ll just have to wait. Maybe they’ll go away–?
I’ve got to decorate our tree. We specialize in old ornaments handed down for generations. Our tree lights are older than I am, and they still work–inventory from Grandpa’s store that he had in the 1930s.
And I want my cigar, and my iced tea. I was so busy yesterday, I forgot to have my tea. Fap to that! Today I’m going to have my tea and revel in it.
And a lot of Christmas music, too. We can rejoice is the knowledge that we can’t run out of Christmas music.
Christ the Savior is born!
Once again, they couldn’t stop Him.