{"id":12599,"date":"2022-12-24T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=12599"},"modified":"2022-12-24T03:12:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T08:12:33","slug":"virtual-advent-tour-2022-day-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=12599","title":{"rendered":"virtual advent tour 2022: day 24"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VAT2022.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VAT2022.jpg\" alt=\"Virtual Advent Tour 2022\" width=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VAT2022.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VAT2022-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VAT2022-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you&#8217;re healthy and safe and have heat and power and are able to be with loved ones in real life or over the phone or video chat.<\/p>\n<p>From about the time I was in middle school, my mother would plan elaborate Christmas Eve feasts for after we got back from the evening Christmas Eve service. These dinners continued until after my brother and I graduated from college, although they got earlier so Rudi and I could make it to a midnight candles and carols service at church where we lived.<\/p>\n<p>For the past couple decades, we&#8217;ve scaled back so that we do a Christmas Eve buffet while we watch holiday movies. I believe this year it will include <em>Love Actually<\/em> and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qafMPg_RGKU\">Christmas Eve<\/a><\/em>, which Loretta Young&#8217;s estate has added to YouTube, should you want to watch one of her (and several other actors&#8217;) final roles.<\/p>\n<p>I also like to sneak in a viewing of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/cprkCAxS7zw\">Christmas Eve on Sesame Street<\/a><\/em> before bed.<\/p>\n<p>How do you like to spend your Christmas Eve? Perhaps you still need to wrap presents for a couple hours and would like something to listen to while you&#8217;re doing it. Here&#8217;s the classic New York Public Library recording of Neil Gaiman reading Charles Dickens&#8217; <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/182176788&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/nypl\" title=\"New York Public Library\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Public Library<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/nypl\/neil-gaiman-reads-a-christmas-carol\" title=\"Neil Gaiman Reads &quot;A Christmas Carol&quot;\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">Neil Gaiman Reads &quot;A Christmas Carol&quot;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Maybe you don&#8217;t need to fill that much time. Maybe you&#8217;re looking for to watch something quick while you&#8217;re waiting for someone else to shower or for a batch of cookies to bake. Here&#8217;s First Lady Michelle Obama reading Clement Moore&#8217;s &#8220;&#8216;Twas the Night Before Christmas&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w_EvsLCqoWs\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>And if even that feels like too much time to take, here&#8217;s a Christmas song to listen to while you&#8217;re getting dressed. It&#8217;s Stan Rogers performing, &#8220;At Last I&#8217;m Ready for Christmas,&#8221; and if you&#8217;re still running, you might relate:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jeQqifqhN04\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Whatever your frame of mind now, I hope by tonight you&#8217;re ready to curl up in front of a fireplace or a movie or in bed and celebrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you&#8217;re healthy and safe and have heat and power and are able to be with loved ones in real life or over the phone or video chat. From about the time I was in middle school, my mother would plan elaborate Christmas Eve feasts for after we got back from [&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-12599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmasholiday-season"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>virtual advent tour 2022: day 24 - 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=12599\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"virtual advent tour 2022: day 24 - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you&#8217;re healthy and safe and have heat and power and are able to be with loved ones in real life or over the phone or video chat. 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