{"id":3631,"date":"2014-12-20T11:40:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T11:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aniam.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3631"},"modified":"2014-12-20T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T13:01:13","slug":"advent-calendar-day-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aniam.co.uk\/blog\/advent-calendar-day-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Calendar Day 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"advent20\"<\/a>It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, to coin a jingle. I woke up this morning with Polish carols going around in my head. Given that the likelihood of having heard these amongst the interminably repetitive festive tunes blaring out of every shop is less than zero, this is a strong indicator that I may just be getting into the spirit of the season, ever so slightly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

School finished yesterday, earlier than expected in DD’s case, since we hadn’t realised they were finishing at lunchtime, so she joined us for a pub lunch* and regaled us with her successes. It seems she came top of every class.\u00a0<\/strong>So I dyed her hair purple. \"IMG_1140\"Well, in fairness, I promised\u00a0months ago that as soon as she broke up I’d do her hair\u00a0purple\u00a0for Christmas and we had a party yesterday evening \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

*Yes, I know, my third pub visit (to the same pub) in 24 hours – shocking!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, the children’s presents are sorted, most of the extended family on my side are sorted, most of the food has been bought\/planned and having come home, (not too late, but very tired), from the party, I had the following conversation with DH:<\/p>\n

DH: So what do you want for Christmas?
\nMe: It’s a bit late isn’t it?
\nDH: Not really
\nMe: *shrugs*…What do you want for Christmas?
\nDH:….Nothing really…umm, I know, a piece of cow. You can wrap it up for me.
\nMe: In pastry?*
\nDH: Yeah, that’ll do.
\nMe: Sorted!<\/p>\n

*Beef Wellington was already planned for Christmas lunch<\/em><\/p>\n

So finally, on to today’s card and I have chosen the Medieval Scapini Tarot, just because it used to be one of my working decks but I haven’t used it in a while and Christmas is a mawkishly nostalgic time of year \ud83d\ude42 The card today is….The Hermit<\/p>\n

\"advent020\"<\/a>Hmm, seems fairly unlikely that there will be much hermit-ing going on. We don’t have a cave or any juniper bushes, for a start, and I have no intention of growing a long beard…on any part of my body. I expect the children will go and hide in their rooms to play with their presents, DH will have a snooze and so I’ll be left effectively alone, contemplating the infinite…or, more likely veg-ing in front of the telly.<\/p>\n

It may be a bit of a blessing though, as I have made no inroads at all in my reading list in such a long time. When I read, I may as well be in a cave alone as I don’t see or hear anything else at all. Yep, I think some reading is in order of Christmas \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

There are some interesting details in this card. The towns and boats are tiny in proportion to the Hermit himself, so perhaps a stroll up to the boating pond on Hampstead Heath is also on the cards. He also has a rather festively colourful lamp and his staff is a stem of pink roses with a snake curled around the bottom. I shall beware of strangers bearing snake-filled flowers, I think.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, here is a Polish carol to vary your diet of festive music \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n