For Danielle and me, it was a really nice holiday. Danielle is my friend from my YAGM program who came to visit for Christmas!! She arrived on the 23rd and after settling in, we did some city exploring and hung out together. I'm so glad she was here - a great friend and a perfect person to spend the holidays with.
On Christmas Eve, we went to church at St. Columba's and had coffee/tea afterwards. Then we quickly ate lunch and went out to deliver gifts to kids who participate in the Island's activities with Hayley (an Island staff member). It was a good way for both of us to see more of York - getting driven places changes so much about how you see a place. It's not as detailed but it's definitely helps getting to see places further outside of York, like Acomb, which is the area where we delivered gifts.
Then we walked on the city walls and saw more of the city - it doesn't take long to see the highlights of York but it's also a city you could spend a lot of time getting to know the ins-and-outs of. We came back to chill out for a bit before the Christmas Eve Communion Service that evening. It was a small but lovely service.
Then we ate tons of cheese, bread, grapes, hummus, and sausage rolls, drank wine, talked a lot, Skyped our families, and got ourselves up and out the door at 10.30 pm to go to the York Minster!
This was super super super cool. My friend from volunteering at Carecent, Uschi, is a congregant of the fellowship that worships at the York Minster. This is the largest gothic cathedral in the country, the second largest in Europe, and its East Window has the most stained glass of any window in Europe! It's also the sight of so many historical events and it's breathtaking from the inside and outside.
So Uschi promised to save us seats for the midnight mass. We got there early, or so we thought, but it was already filling up! We found Uschi easily and she led us to seats in the FIFTH ROW. We were up with family members/actual congregants. Super cool! And we could see and hear everything easily, which is remarkable in a church as big as the Minster. We tried to count the rows (which were all full) and estimated that there had to be 2,000 people there.
The service itself was really nice - there was a string ensemble, the Minster choir, and it was very full of the typical Anglican pomp and circumstance (like incense and lots of marching around and stuff). I liked it a lot. As Danielle said, do the thing you're supposed to do in the place you're supposed to do it. I.e., in Mexico on November 1st go celebrate El Dia de los Muertes, in Rio de Janeiro on Carnivale, go to a street festival, etc. In York, on Christmas Eve, you should go to the York Minster for the midnight service. So we did and it was amazing.
We came home exhausted and got up the next morning at 7.45 am to get to Carecent! I volunteer at Carecent every Monday. Danielle had said when we were first started talking about her visit that she wanted to volunteer somewhere on Christmas Day, so it worked out perfectly that Carecent serves a Christmas lunch.
I thought there weren't going to be many of us - but there were 15 volunteers, all of whom were SO NICE. There were a few people in the twenties like us, some there with their parents, and a bunch of other regular weekly volunteers like me. Lots of them had families waiting for them at home, which I thought made their volunteering even more generous. For me and Danielle, we weren't doing much else, but the locals had a lot more options.
We had such a lovely time prepping the food. Bread and cheese, chips, bread and pate, pork pie, and dips for appetizers, and then roast turkeys, potatoes, brussels sprouts, carrots, carrot and swede mash, gravy, and stuffing for dinner (dinner = lunch here, and tea = dinner. So people say "I had a burger for tea" and it sounds like they drank tea and had a burger, but that's just how they say I had a burger for dinner). Then for dessert there was Eton mess, Christmas pudding, yule log, and chocolates. There was non-alcoholic mulled wine and cheese and other snacky things for after lunch. And we also gave out Christmas presents to everyone and people could take a sandwich and fruit for their tea.
Since we had so many volunteers, it meant that we could spend more time talking to our guests. Some of them I was familiar with from Mondays, but some I hadn't met. It made me happy to see the ones I know, and to meet a few newcomers, but it's also sad to think that some people are so estranged from their families that they don't have a place to spend Christmas - not even one member of their family, or any of their friends, to offer up a place.
The nice thing about Carecent is that I think the volunteers do a super job of making everyone feel welcomed and not pitied. It's easy to have the attitude that serving others makes you superior. I've seen it all the time. This is also part of what perpetuates injustices and maintains a band-aid of charity, rather than solving the root of the problem. But at Carecent, I've always gotten the sense that the volunteers are taught to know that we are all human, thus we are all equal. We all deserve love and care. It sounds so simple writing it! But it's one of the biggest reasons that Carecent is one of the highlights of my week.
Danielle was a superstar at talking to everyone and has a thousand new Carecent buddies, volunteers and guests alike. I had to drag her away when it was time to go home and get ready for dinner.
Derek and Isobel invited us over for 4 pm, so we came home, changed, had a quick Skupe sesh with family members, and walked across a very empty York to their apartment.
One of the best pieces of news I got when we got back in - Dorothy and Rajib (Shantonu's sister-in-law and brother) had their baby!! Aleina Kundu (pronounced Alina) was born on Christmas Day!!! So so exciting!
Being with Derek and Isobel for Christmas dinner was so, so special. It was such a nice evening and we were so engaged that I forgot to take pictures. The food was, of course, amazing, because they're great cooks. Turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, and sauteed cavolo nero, plus wine and champagne, and salmon crostini for appetizers. And for dessert, an English trifle! It's like a cake/cream/fruit/jello thing. It was super delish after a heavier savory dinner. Of course, everyone got along great, because Danielle, Derek, and Isobel are some of my favorite people. And it was so fun to share the evening with them.
And then we had Italian cookies that Danielle and I had made!
We made these the first night Danielle arrived. My cousin Mary makes the most incredible Italian cookies for Christmas Eve every year and I was really really craving them, So she sent us the recipe (and talked us through the process) and we baked our hearts out. While eating about a pound of cookie dough each. And we took them to Derek and Isobel's for an after dinner snack with tea. Thanks Mary for the recipe and the help!
After coming home, we showered and Skyped with more family and collapsed into bed. Exhausted!
I hope everyone had a superb Christmas day!!!
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