Yesterday, Josh and I stepped into Christmas preparation mode (Advent) a day early. He began his day by mowing the grass and cleaning off the roof. While I began my day by working on the grocery list and deciding what meals we would have for the month. I honestly enjoy sitting down and doing that...it keeps us from having the same things over and over.After Josh finished working outside he moved inside to help clean and I began the hunt for my Advent wreath. I found it!!! So I can hardly wait to begin lighting candles this evening and singing "O Come O Come Emmanuel" my hubby's favorite carol and the one we Episcopalians frequent during Advent.
My decorating frenzy continued throughout the afternoon and we have many signs of Christmas already speckled about our house. No tree yet, of course, we'll wait until later in December to do that...but many of the other things are up. The nativity scenes without baby Jesus present. He'll appear on Christmas Day. The wise men and shepherds still have a way to travel to reach the nativity scenes but Mary, Joseph and the donkey are there. :)
So keeping with the Christmas spirit we headed off to a Madrigal dinner. It was fun. I'd never been to one of those before!
A Madrigal dinner is a Christmas dinner from the Middle Ages that was hosted by the Queen & King for the Lords and Ladies of their court.
And yes the King and Queen were present (the mayor and his wife).
What can I say, we had a blast. There was a servant to announce our arrival and Lord and Lady Briones! There were rules clearly posted about not wiping your hands on the table or putting your elbows on the table written in Middle English. The little wenches served us our meal, sold flowers for a dollar (the one at the top of the message is the one my dear hubby bought for me). Additionally the wenches and servants provided entertainment. But entertainment was not the entire focus...those attending the meal did have to follow the rules because there was a pillory present in case anyone misbehaved and unfortunately there were those that had to be arrested and taken to the pillory. Finally there were those selling favors during this dinner. For $2 you could send a kiss to someone through a wench or jesteras well as being able to send an insult or complimentfor merely a dollar. A merry time was had by all.
Christmas carols were abundant as was the food. Josh had both a full turkey leg and porkloin rib in addition to his soupy potatoes and vegetables. All of these were eaten in traditional mid ages style, with not silverware to be found. That probably was one of the coolest things about the dinner. And yes, I look forward to attending a Madrigal dinner again next year. So I encourage all of you to see if you can find one in your area. It's an excellent way to get into the proper spirit....
2 comments:
What a fun evening! Christmas is in the air. We also have decorations sprouting all over the house. And yes, we did sing O Come O come Emmauel tonight! Tomorrow we'll repeat it and add Come thou long expected Jesus.
I do so love this time of year, with all of the festivities, and the Advent wreath as well as the singing of O come O come Emmanuel. :) We did have such fun at the Madrigal dinner...I'm so lucky to have all of you as well as Josh to share all of this with.
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