{"id":11901,"date":"2021-12-23T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=11901"},"modified":"2021-12-23T06:32:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T11:32:50","slug":"virtual-advent-tour-2021-day-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=11901","title":{"rendered":"virtual advent tour 2021: day 23"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/VAT21-400.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/VAT21-400.jpeg\" alt=\"Virtual Advent Tour 2021 badge -- 400 px\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/VAT21-400.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/VAT21-400-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In the morning, Rudi and I drive north to my parents. For a week, my living room has been littered with dozens of bags containing unwrapped gifts. Homemade things are not complete. There are also unsent Christmas cards on the table and unused baking ingredients in the kitchen. My life is still filled with Christmas potential, which is good because Christmas-yet-to-come and I are going to have to have a heart-to-heart about what&#8217;s possible in the remaining hours leading up to the holiday.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PyPDS3ueLa0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Amidst all that, I threw up the reindeer signal to my dear friend, chick at <a href=\"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/?p=21339\">Blue-Footed Musings<\/a>, and asked if, amidst her own frenetic to-do list, she had the capacity to write one more blog post. And she, being the lovely woman that she is, pushed her wrapping paper to the side and offered us up the great story behind today&#8217;s door. It&#8217;s a story of music and family and silliness and tradition and just the sort of thing that we all love to read as the hours tick by until Saint Nick&#8217;s arrival.<\/p>\n<p>Her story is a bit of a balm to my soul. Because this year I understand better than ever before that Christmas is ultimately about the people. Even if things aren&#8217;t quite done or the gifts are tucked into bags instead of wrapped and bowed, we will be together to open them in the same room, where hugs can be given and laughter won&#8217;t be tinged with tears of knowing the right thing sucks. <\/p>\n<p>I know the last few weeks have brought that spectre back into some of your lives, and if you&#8217;re once again doing the right, sucky thing to keep your loved ones safe, I tip my Santa hat to you and wish the next few days will be filled with new traditions and adaptations that make the best of the situation. Maybe you, too, could channel your inner opera star for a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the morning, Rudi and I drive north to my parents. For a week, my living room has been littered with dozens of bags containing unwrapped gifts. Homemade things are not complete. There are also unsent Christmas cards on the table and unused baking ingredients in the kitchen. My life is still filled with Christmas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmasholiday-season"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>virtual advent tour 2021: day 23 - sprite writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=11901\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"virtual advent tour 2021: day 23 - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the morning, Rudi and I drive north to my parents. 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