Ben’s Musings

We have been decorating our bedroom and today had a friend sending the floor boards. Unfortunately he punctured a Radiator Pipe while hammering a floorboard down and so the ceiling in the hallway started leaking! One of his friends is currently in the process of welding the pipe back together after taking out the damaged section - fun and games!

I have long been a fan of Calvin and Hobbes and although I am not protective over many of my belongings, my Calvin and Hobbes books are an exception. So imagine my joy at coming across the entire collection of Calvins Snow Art! Brilliant!

Mary-Lou and I are going to spend Christmas in Derby with my side of the family this year. It will be a bit of a change for Mary-Lou. Last year we were with her side of the family in Westminster where we opened our presents straight after midnight, when it turned to Christmas day. Then we all slept in the living room on the floor and sofa together which was really nice and cosy!

This Christmas however, we’re following the Gibbs routine! This means we all get up and dressed before we can go downstairs, then we all have Bacon Butties and Cereal etc. for breakfast, then, only when we have all finished, we go into the living room where there are pillowcases with presents in them! We find our pillowcase and take a seat, then we go round in turn opening one present at a time!

I can only remember 1 White Christmas in Derby, but even if it isn’t a White Christmas this year, don’t worry, you can still build your own snowman online!

Incase you don’t read this Blog before Christmas - Merry Christmas!

It’s Mary-Lou’s birthday on Saturday (17th) and I’ve already got her Birthday and Christmas Pressies 2 weeks ago. It feels good!

I’ve started reading Dan Brown’s Deception point - far fetched and not as gripping as The Da Vinci Code which was not as good as Angels And Demons.

If you’ve ever wondered about snow, wonder no more! This website has everything you have ever wanted to know about snow - Amazing!

Now you know all about snow flakes, why not Make A Flake?!

Ugh, I’ve been ill with a cold the last few days and have been very busy at work too. But here are a few Christmassy Links:

Email Santa Claus

Santa Claus Coffin

How to make a paper snowflake

Oops, didn’t manage to blog yesterday because I was meeting my new friend, Lucy Hope Wenham. I met her when she was just 18 hours old at her house where she was born - it blew my mind because I KNEW babies were born in hospitals and stayed there for at least 3 days before meeting anyone!

Because I didn’t blog yesterday, I bring you an early Christmas gift, Pandora. Pandora allows you to type in a song or artist, then it finds and plays music similar to the thing you entered - for free! It is amazingly accurate and lets you create 100 self defined radio stations. Flipping Awesome! It’s all I’ve been listening to for the last few days.

I’m not sure where the Christmas Tree fits into Christmas festivities, Jesus was not born in a Scandanavian forest! But if they are not part of the Christian elements of the festival (and I don’t want any part in the pagan elements), then we could always decorate our couches:

The consumerism which is central to the Christmas Festival these days is very sad. It is obviously a result of the gift giving aspect of Christmas which I suppose comes from the fact that the Magi and Shepherds bought gifts for Jesus when He was born. But the blatent commercialisation of this tradition is upsetting.

So if I do not want to take part in any pagan part of the Christmas Festival, then is giving gifts at Christmas wrong? For a few days I thought it was wrong because nowadays we can’t avoid feeding the consumerist and economic machine if we are to give gifts at Christmas.

But then again, to give any gift should cost us, and all gifts we give should be thoughtful. So perhaps gifts such as cards made by our own hands, or letters about why we love the reciever or other such non-expensive gifts are best.

Or we could by ethical products which don’t exploit or abuse poorer people and nations for the sake of our economy and pockets. Or we could buy gifts which benefit the poor in our world instead of stuff our friends or family don’t need.

So along those lines, checkout Oxfam Unwrapped. You can buy a Donkey for someone in a developing nation for £50! Or you can teach a class for a month, kit out 5 students, provide children with school dinners, buy shares in Mango plantations and more.

Or, Samaritains Purse, a more Christian focussed charity, lets you donate any amount for things like Bicycles, Home Care Kits, Chickens, Leadership Training, and Water Treatment.

In any case, checkout these 10 tips for an ethical Chistmas.

I have made the decision (or more accurately, realised) that Christmas is now a pagan festival.

It’s pretty obvious that economic greed, and therefore consumerism, has taken over Christmas. For many companies, a quarter of their annual turnover is in the month leading to Christmas day. It probably began on a mass scale sometime in the 1920’s when Coca-Cola first drew Santa Clause in their trademark colours - red, black and white.

I don’t want to take part in any pagan elements of any festival, so how can I celebrate the birth of Christ in an honoring way? Hmm, I think I’ll look into this further over the next few weeks.

Today’s treat is from the Weebl factory of song and animation! It’s their Advent Calendar - enjoy.

Every day until Christmas day, I aim to blog some things I’ve found on t’interweb which are Christmas related - along with some of my thoughts on the season.

One of the things I have never really liked is the amount of Christmas cards sent at Christmas. I know people want to wish each other well etc. but it does seem an excessive waste of paper and card and money.

So this year, why not send your wishes to your friends and family for FREE with Pee Mail!