Tag: Advent 2017

Celebrating the Yuletide Season at Castle Vexstein by Jemima Pett – Day 10 Advent 2017, 2nd Sunday of Advent

The Yuletide season is one of relaxation and happiness for all who belong to Vexstein, from the lowliest to the highest, currently my uncle, Baron Smallweed, who succeeded a few years ago following the death of my other uncle, the late Baron Darcy.  The relaxation stems in part to the fact that we close down production at the brewery for the ten day holiday.  This allows everyone to have a good break and for all the equipment to be thoroughly cleaned and overhauled.   So Solstice really starts with the end of the last shift, and to mark that, we have a firework display over the brewery, and a street market with vendors selling hot drinks and snacks, playing music and dancing, on the streets outside the castle walls.

Christmas Mash-Up by Stephanie Ascough – Day 9 Advent 2017

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! Building holiday traditions with my family makes me happy. We may be slow to decorate, but the handmade ornaments, Christmas candles and fragrant evergreen tree delight us all nonetheless. We’ll enjoy looking at Christmas lights and singing carols at our church. What has fascinated me for several years now are the many origins of Christmas celebrations. Refill your cocoa mug and light an evergreen candle, because this is gonna be fun.

Celebrating Gratefulness during the holiday season by D.E. Haggerty – Day 8 Advent 2017

I had an entire blog post planned out in my head about Christmas traditions and how my husband and I had developed our own as he’s often in foreign lands far away from either one of our families during the Christmas holidays. But then I went to a BusinessBoost event and heard a talk from Mo Gawdat. This evening was supposed to be about entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Mr. Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer of the futuristic dream factory Google X. I expected him to talk about Google and taking risks in the IT industry. That is definitely not what I got.

The Fourth Plinth by Geoff Le Pard – Day 5 Advent 2017

The world tumbled and tossed as Barry opened his eyes. It's what booze does, he thought: beer and it’s a slow churning; vodka takes you on a merry go round; and gin pummels you with the full spin cycle. He tried to identify where he was. Outside, for sure. Somewhere public. Paved if his arse told the truth. Where was Dan? He'd been with Dan, he was certain. A faint smear of memory made him narrow his eyes: Dan getting in a cab. Why wasn't he in the cab too? Dan pushing him away; Dan calling him something? Bully? Yeah that's it. Even mulish Dan had seen his true colours. Well, sod you, Dan Parsons, and Merry Christmas.

Yuletide at Castle Marsh by Jemima Pett – Day 2 Advent Calendar 2017

Here we are in the lead-up to Yuletide again.  It’s such a busy time, but very enjoyable, and although he would never admit it, it’s a time Fred finds very stressful these days. There are a lot of duties on the King of Marsh, and he’s already despatched three of them, starting with the Solstice Speech, which traditionally reminds us of the passage of the sun round the sky and the Circle of Life.  This is not exactly what Fred’s Philosophical Thoughts say, as he has it on good authority that our world travels round the sun.