Rest while waiting for the remaining 22 days till Christmas

Tonight I spent a few hours working at the local OCC distribution center. Towards the end of my four hour shift, our group uncovered four boxes wrapped in paper that was literally "hand" painted. Judging by the size of the hand prints, it was most likely done by the children of the family. Four very lucky children are going to receive these beautiful gifts.

The carol for today is "Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head". It's a beautiful Appalachian song which my mom and I sung for caroling last year as a duet. I love the haunting melody in the minor key.

[Refrain]
Jesus, Jesus, rest your head.
You has got a manger bed.
All the evil folk on earth
Sleep in feathers at their birth.
Jesus, Jesus, rest your head.
You has got a manger bed.

1. Have you heard about our Jesus?
Have you heard about his fate?
How his mammy went to the stable
On that Christmas Eve so late?
Winds were blowing, cows were lowing,
Stars were glowing, glowing, glowing. [Refrain]

2. To the manger came the Wise Men.
Bringing from hin and yon,
For the mother and the father,
And the blessed little Son.
Milkmaids left their fields and flocks
And sat beside the ass and ox. [Refrain]

(This is an old recording, so sorry for the bad quality of sound, but it was the most expressive version I could find even though the soloist is slightly flat and under pitch on the higher notes...)

20 Days till Christmas

My adventures today consisted of unexpectedly having to cook supper and sorting shoe boxes at the local Operation Christmas Child center. The former resulted in a frankfurter casserole and the latter resulted with tired muscles and meeting a friend. Though it was only in passing, I managed to exchange words twice with an online friend I met through NarniaWeb last month. It was nice to see her, though I regretted not having more of an opportunity to talk. Our shifts just didn't sync like we originally thought they would.

On the line, I snagged the role of taper as soon as the team leader called for a volunteer. I've done it before and consider it more fun than sorting through the boxes and trying to cram everything back in.

So, I stood next to both the sorters and the carton/box packers. It was intriguing to watch, and sometimes help, them stuff 15 or more shoe boxes into one carton. I believe the record for the person next to me was 17 in one carton.

There was an unusual side effect to taping. First, I must attempt to describe the awful smell of this tape. It was stringent and icky, however, my stomach started grumbling. Don't ask me why or how, but I was hungry and merely became hungrier as the 4 hours of our shift progressed. That and thirsty. But my thirst could be explained by a deficit of water intake today. I downed a 10 oz bottle of water in the 10 minutes it took for us to drive home.

Of course, with all that on my plate, I didn't have time for adding more to my story. I will try again tomorrow. If I can fit it in between scouring my room for yard sale items.

Until next time!