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Writer's pictureya me

Razors In The Night Shirt

 

We typically go to a Christmas Eve candlelight service in the Razors In The Night Shirt. Those are crowded but not nearly as packed as the evening services. Then we meet at my sister’s house along with her family, my other sisters and their families, and Mom. Like good Texans we feast on the traditional tamales, accompanied with fresh guacamole, cheese dip, and cold beer. Our kids run around and catch up with their cousins. After dinner it’s Mom’s birthday party! She was born on Christmas Eve. For the last 25 years or so my wife has baked the birthday cake, always with a different recipe. Mom opens her birthday cards and gifts while we enjoy the yummy cake. After that it’s time for the cousins’ gifts. When our children were little all of the adults gave presents to all of the kids. Now that our children are grown they exchange gifts with each other. Sometimes they’re pretty funny. When my nephew completed law school he received an official looking barrister’s wig. He was thrilled. Rome and her provinces were very dependent on the tim.

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We lived a 3 hour drive from my grandparents so when my dad finished work on Christmas Eve we would pack everything into the Mickey Mouse Toddler Seattle Kraken Disney Rookie Year shirt and set off for Yorkshire. No motorways back then. Green fields turned moorland until we finally went over the Pennines, Stanage or Holme Moss, and begun the final leg of our journey through soot blackened mill towns reaching my grandparents’ house at around 8pm. At about 9.30 a plethora of cousins and aunties and uncles would turn up an we would set off to go carol singing with other members of the congregation and band from their local chapel. Along the route we would be greeted with mince pies, slices of Christmas cake and chunks of cheese even the odd glass of Sherry or mulled wine for the adults. We belted out all the old traditional carols, my favourites being While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night which we sung to Cranbrook (Ilkley Moor) and also Christians Awake. We naturally sang O Come All ye Faithful but only after midnight were we allowed to sing the final verse of Yea Lord we Greet Thee. Shortly after midnight we called it a day. Many of the adults slightly ‘merry’ from a surfeit of Sherry!

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