Christmas nostalgia

The sight of the Met's Christmas Tree, the choir fence in the Medieval Hall, and an a cappella concert by the wonderous, amazing Chanticleer (which is the closest thing to a 6 foot fully-grown-men's answer to the Vienna Boy's Choir, btw) brought back warm and fuzzy festive memories of yore. "In the bleak mid-winter", "O little town of Bethlehem" and all this choir business hurls back long forgotten CLC memories: Carol Prac's for the annual Christmas concerts, Pip & Jims, Christmas crackers, House prizes (I won the Deportment Prize in 1's, and the Tidiness Prize in 5's - already a Martha Stewart in the making...), mulled wine, end-of-term prayers and blazers, and Mrs. L-G, my housemistress back in Slodge. At the time, she was my biggest problem with authority. Looking back, she was perhaps the coolest housemistress out of the whole stuffy lot: she organized house outtings to ice rinks, ballet, Shakespeare plays, Alton Tower trips, countryside walks with her slobbery sheep dog Prima; she'd do coffee with 5's after church, talk about family and how we're getting on in school - but all this was not appreciated until much later.

Mrs. L-G, wherever you are now, I hope you are doing well. Thanks for trying to shape us lot into forward-thinking women.