Here's wishing you all a very anxious and anticipation-filled advent!
We *just* got back in the door from a very exciting and exhausting shopping trip in Edmonton. We've gathered from Google searches and talking to people who've lived here longer than a couple months that there are actually lots of different places to shop in Edmonton. We've somewhat plugged our tourist ears and sang a noisy "Fa la la la la" on our way to the West Ed.
Which is, by the way, a pretty cool place. Two days in the biggest mall in North America. Did we do any of the fun stuff? Not really, no. We saw a sea lion doing tricks, which was cool. And wished we'd brought our bathing suits to do the water park. But principally we Christmas-shopped. We're proud to announce we are very nearly done our Christmas shopping.
Shopping, in general, is a bit trickier now living off the grid. And we *mean* off the grid. The phone company doesn't even run a line to our house. Anyway, any time we need to do any shopping or errands (groceries, gas, library books, Christmas gifts, etc) we need to either drive 45min and hope it's in Rocky, or suck it up and do the 90min to Red Deer. Which we're happy to say we almost never need to do. But if you need a Walmart, then you need a Walmart.
Save the last few presents and some wrapping, our advent can now relax into a more reasonable and sane pace of counting down the school days left and listening to Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" on repeat.
In the interest of throwing cool parts of our life in people's faces, the highlight of our Edmonton trip was our evening at the symphony. We were fortunate enough to arrive in town the night that the ESO was playing Handel's "Messiah". Now, I've had a lot of people who know more about classical music than I do tell me at length all the things that are wrong with the "Messiah". It was thrown together hastily, it's less narrative than other pieces in its genre, it's rough, etc. I've often said that classical music is a big blind spot of mine and I'd like to learn more. But on this subject I think I'm content to remain blissfully ignorant. What I like about the Messiah is that what Handel has done - whether sufficiently giftedly or not - is attached musical cadence and narrative to the grand narrative of what Scripture says about Christ. I can understand why, too. When I read broad strokes of Scripture, especially any of the Old testament prophets or the Psalms, I feel like I notice 'movements' of themes and the tone of prophecy as I read. A kind of wave-like motion between God's mercy and His wrath. Between promise and fulfillment. When I thought about it that way, nothing seemed more natural but to use the evocative power of music to draw attention to the currents of these themes in Scripture. And as an advent devotional practice, it was really nice.
Also in the news: having finally finished registering our vehicle in Alberta and getting Alberta plates, we're pretty much finished the long list of things we had to do to become Albertans. Hooray! At the staff Christmas party this past week we had an experience that felt uniquely 'small town Alberta': we had a steak fry at the legion. We got together at the legion and they gave us raw steaks and side dishes and an indoor grill. Like fondue, AAA Angus-style! Is that a thing at other legion halls?
Keep your stick on the ball. Or your eye on the ice. One of those.
We *just* got back in the door from a very exciting and exhausting shopping trip in Edmonton. We've gathered from Google searches and talking to people who've lived here longer than a couple months that there are actually lots of different places to shop in Edmonton. We've somewhat plugged our tourist ears and sang a noisy "Fa la la la la" on our way to the West Ed.
Which is, by the way, a pretty cool place. Two days in the biggest mall in North America. Did we do any of the fun stuff? Not really, no. We saw a sea lion doing tricks, which was cool. And wished we'd brought our bathing suits to do the water park. But principally we Christmas-shopped. We're proud to announce we are very nearly done our Christmas shopping.
Shopping, in general, is a bit trickier now living off the grid. And we *mean* off the grid. The phone company doesn't even run a line to our house. Anyway, any time we need to do any shopping or errands (groceries, gas, library books, Christmas gifts, etc) we need to either drive 45min and hope it's in Rocky, or suck it up and do the 90min to Red Deer. Which we're happy to say we almost never need to do. But if you need a Walmart, then you need a Walmart.
Save the last few presents and some wrapping, our advent can now relax into a more reasonable and sane pace of counting down the school days left and listening to Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" on repeat.
In the interest of throwing cool parts of our life in people's faces, the highlight of our Edmonton trip was our evening at the symphony. We were fortunate enough to arrive in town the night that the ESO was playing Handel's "Messiah". Now, I've had a lot of people who know more about classical music than I do tell me at length all the things that are wrong with the "Messiah". It was thrown together hastily, it's less narrative than other pieces in its genre, it's rough, etc. I've often said that classical music is a big blind spot of mine and I'd like to learn more. But on this subject I think I'm content to remain blissfully ignorant. What I like about the Messiah is that what Handel has done - whether sufficiently giftedly or not - is attached musical cadence and narrative to the grand narrative of what Scripture says about Christ. I can understand why, too. When I read broad strokes of Scripture, especially any of the Old testament prophets or the Psalms, I feel like I notice 'movements' of themes and the tone of prophecy as I read. A kind of wave-like motion between God's mercy and His wrath. Between promise and fulfillment. When I thought about it that way, nothing seemed more natural but to use the evocative power of music to draw attention to the currents of these themes in Scripture. And as an advent devotional practice, it was really nice.
Also in the news: having finally finished registering our vehicle in Alberta and getting Alberta plates, we're pretty much finished the long list of things we had to do to become Albertans. Hooray! At the staff Christmas party this past week we had an experience that felt uniquely 'small town Alberta': we had a steak fry at the legion. We got together at the legion and they gave us raw steaks and side dishes and an indoor grill. Like fondue, AAA Angus-style! Is that a thing at other legion halls?
Keep your stick on the ball. Or your eye on the ice. One of those.
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