The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (233) Christingle Girls

 

December

 

It was at the church of St Pierre where the Christingle service was being held which would be well attended as usual as there would be children and families there from all across the island. 

 

The Christingle Service had become ingrained in Anglican worship though it had its origins in Eastern Europe, and the Christingle Service is a Service of candle lights, where very many years ago people gathered in the street, sang carols and collected gifts to help the less fortunate in the community.

It is a beautiful candle lit service of hymns, carols, recitations and bible readings, but Christingle goes beyond a candlelight service, and it tells a story.

A story is told with the symbolic use of an orange representing the world.
A red ribbon is tied around the orange to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed for his people and toothpicks decorated with dried fruits and sweets are placed at the four corners of the orange representing all the people of the world.
A lighted candle in the center of the orange represents the gift of the light of Christ to the world.

The Christingle lights are made by the children in Sunday school, and then they carry them proudly in procession into the church where they are lit for the service.

 

Because the symbol of the service began life in the Sunday School classes the leaders also attend to watch their charges and from St Joan of Arc’s were Sam Dennison, Robert Horne, Catherine Emmans, and Shannon Duel.

 

Catherine Emmans thought of herself as a plump girl but in reality, she was just a couple of dress sizes bigger than her best friend.

In every other respect she thought she was ok, with her luscious Auburn hair and an abundance of freckle and she was a tall girl, but that hadn’t been enough for her to get her anywhere with Sam Dennison, and she was convinced he didn’t even know she existed, but she had been in love with Sam since she was 12 years old and she was now 18.

 

Sam Dennison and Robert Horne were cousins and had black hair and wild gypsy eyes and were also 18-year-old and good-looking boys, and were very popular with the girls, but the sort of girls who kept throwing themselves at them were not the type of girl they were looking for.

 

Shannon Duel was 17 years old, and she was pretty, tall and slender girl with long dark hair and she was on the outside at least ultra-confident and ultra-popular with the boys who she kept dancing on strings, but they were not the right boys.

She was always immaculately turned out, painted, perfumed and powdered and ready to impress Mr. Right.

But apparently, he was never looking her way, whoever he might be.

But for all her big talk and bravado she was fast approaching 18 and hadn’t even been kissed.

Because she was pretty and because she knew she was pretty, Shannon always talked big when it came to the opposite sex, and her friends bought into it.

But it was all bravado, if one of the men she flirted with actually came on to her, she would have run a mile.

Outside she was sexy and confident but inside she was a shy and dowdy little mouse.

 

Shannon was convinced she was never going to be kissed and especially not before she reached her 18th birthday.

She could quite easily get a kiss in time if she acted like a tart, but she wasn’t a tart and she wanted her first kiss to be romantic, not desperate.

Meanwhile Catherine was still dreaming of a romantic affair with her prince charming Sam Dennison but was resigned to the fact it would never happen.

 

The two friends finally confided in each other during December.

“You fancy one of them?” Shannon probed “Which one?”

“Sam” she reluctantly replied.

“How long have you fancied him?” Shannon quizzed.

“Since I was 12” she replied.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“Because nothing will ever come of it” Catherine said definitively.

 

But Shannon was very persuasive, and they made a plan, so on the afternoon of the Christingle service the girls did each other’s makeup, so they could each snag themselves a dark-haired Gypsy eyed boyfriend.

“Wow” Shannon said, “I look really hot.”

“Not bad, eh?” Catherine said admiring herself in the mirror.

“I look about 20” Shannon said, “Don’t you think?”

“21 maybe” Catherine added.

“Shall we go to the pub with them then” she suggested.

Catherine thought about it for a moment and said.

“I don’t know” she said, “I look rubbish.”

“You can borrow something of mine” Shannon said, and Catherine reluctantly agreed so half an hour later they were laughing and joking and on their way to St Pierre’s.

At the same time Shannon and Catherine were doing their makeup Sam and his Cousin Robert were just leaving home themselves for the same destination.

 

The Christingle service was lovely, and the huge congregation thoroughly enjoyed it but for the girls it caused a problem for them as they lost track of the boys, but unbeknown to them they had also decided to go to the pub, fortunately they also chose the Sword and Shield.

 

Shannon hadn’t been to a pub before and although she looked old enough to be in there after the makeover, she had no ID, so she went and found a table and Catherine bought the drinks.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (232) Like a Breath of Spring

December

 

It all began for Evangeline House and Roman Street in the southern town off Abbottsford, which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.

It was also a place that benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford Town football club and was a seat of learning thanks to Downshire University’s.

 

Sweet Evangeline House walked into the party with a delicate air, and she entered Roman’s life like a breath of spring, enlivening him and her sweet refreshing presence altered everything in his world forever.

Heads turned to watch the maiden, a vision of pulchritude, as she moved like liquid lust, but she had eyes for him and him alone.

She was lithe limbed, gracile, and coquettish in the extreme and had but one desire which was to win his heart and soul because Evangeline was hopelessly in love with him.

But until that day she had been invisible to him, all through the first year they were at University she was just another college girl on campus, but for her he was her universe and every night he was in her head and in her dreams.

She was not invisible to other boys on campus, but she wasn’t interested in any of them, she had set her cap, and she would brook no substitute.

 

However, on that day she was not invisible, on that day he could see her, and he instantly ached for her, but he wasn’t going to get her, not that day.

She didn’t want to be just another conquest for a college boy, she wanted him, but she would deny herself the pleasure of him until he wanted her more.

Dressed as she was in a figure-hugging dress which left nothing to the imagination, she would win his love along with his lust.

She had his attention now and with him hooked she would lead him like a bull by the nose until she was certain she had his heart, his soul, and his love as certain sure as she could have had the rest of him right there and then.

Only when he professed his love to her and she was sure of his sincerity would she surrender her virginity to him.

That surrender came on the night of their wedding on the 8th of December, in the Wedding Suite of the Beaumont Manor Hotel and their union was perfectly blessed. 

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (231) St Andrew’s Day

 

November

 

St Pierre in the northwest corner of Beaumont Island, is the largest town on the island, in fact it’s the only town on the island and the most densely populated area in the Pepperstock Bay Islands.

St Pierre was where Arthur Lewis had lived for all 63 years of his life, in fact he’d lived his entire life in the same house, and it had never once occurred to him that he should live anywhere else.

 

He was born in the late fifties and had few recollections of that austere decade, almost all his earliest memories were from the brasher, brighter and less restrained sixties.

But the earliest memories he did have were about Christmas and in the Lewis household Christmas began on St Andrew’s Day, November 30th.

As a result of his awareness of the time coming on the cusp of the decades, his earliest memories of Christmas were of a bright and sparkly time when paper chains and the watery coloured paper stars, bells and balls were being replaced by dazzling foil and tinsel.

Which included the Silver Tinsel Christmas Tree, when he looked back it was a quite unspectacular specimen of a tree compared to what’s on offer in the 21st century, but he loved it.

It stood less than 5 feet tall with its fold down tinsel covered wire branches, tipped with red beads to symbolize berries.

However, by the time his Dad had worked his not inconsiderable Christmas magic and covered it with every size, shape and shade of bauble, glass birds with feathered tails, lantern lights, strands of brightly coloured tinsel, foil covered chocolate treats and tiny crackers lain on the branches, it was transformed and was absolutely stunning.

It was the only tree he’d ever known until his teenage years came to an end, when in the mid-seventies he suggested that they have a real tree just for a change.

He would never have suggested it if he had realized for a second that it would signal the death knell of the Silver Tinsel Tree.

Because the following year it was replaced by a green plastic tree much more akin to the trees of today.

 

After his Dad died a few years later the task of decorating the tree fell to him and he instantly realized, sadly, that he hadn’t inherited his father’s tree dressing skill and was never able to equal him.

He came very close one year, in 1983 it was, but he concluded in the end that he merely flattered to deceive.

 

The task of tree dresser fell to his wife Becky which she performed admirably for 40 years, and she made a far better fist of it than Arthur ever could.

However, whether she possessed the necessary skill to transform a Silver Tinsel Tree into something stunning he would never know, as she passed away in October.

“What I would give to watch you dress the tree again my darling” he said as he stared at the naked branches “and then hold you in my arms beside it”

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – FOR THE LOVE OF CHRISTMAS (2016)

 

Bryson Hughes (Trae Ireland) is a devoted husband with a strong desire to have children, and he thinks that time is running out for him.

His once loving wife Sunday (Jazsmin Lewis) has become cold, bitter and selfish and has lost touch with the meaning of Christmas, along with its peace, love and the gift of giving.

However when a homeless family Langston and Harmony Simms (Aaron D. Spears and Noree Victoria) and their son Langston Jr. (Richard Gallion Jr.) arrive on their doorstep, desperate and penniless, to escape the harshness on a Chicago Winter, bringing nothing with them but for the true meaning of love, things eventually change.

Sunday's heart is softened, and her feelings reignite with the marital vows that once held their marriage together.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – A JOINT CUSTODY CHRISTMAS (2025)

 

Rick and Emily Braun (Joel Riley Martin and Tiffany Rene King) are divorcing but have joint custody of their children, Jake and Jenny (Matthew Garbacz and Lucy Grundberg), however they are in court just before Thanksgiving as Emily wants sole custody.

The Judge (Eric Roberts) hearing the case interviews the children who both complain about being dragged from one parent’s home to the other, so he makes an unusual ruling that upends their family's lives, as they must find a suitable home for the children to live in so the parents are the ones who have to travel between homes instead.

While they all work together to make the house into a home, old memories resurface so could a Merry family Christmas be in their futures?

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THE CHRISTMAS TAPES (2022)

This Christmas-Horror Anthology begins on Christmas Eve when a family is just settling down to a movie night to watch a Christmas classic when they are interrupted by a stranger who is intent on making the next Christmas 'classic' film himself using the family as the terrified cast.

Greg Sestero, Vernon Wells and Dave Sheridan are among the cast. 

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – SILENT BITE (2024)

 

After a Christmas Eve bank heist a gang of bank robbers, Father Christmas (Simon Phillips), Prancer (Luke Avoledo), Snowman (Michael Swatton), and Grinch (Nick Biskupek) take shelter in a seedy motel.

The plan was to sit it out while another member of the gang, Rudolph (Dan Molson), laid a false trail for the police to follow, then when he joined them at the motel they would divide up the cash and head off in the opposite direction.

But Lilith (Sayla de Goede) and her girls Genie, Lucia, Victoria and Selene (Camille Blott, (Louisa Capulet, Kelly Schwartz and Sienna Star) had other plans for the gang.