I'm really enjoying these, even if I don't manage to comment on each one. Thank you, Robins, for our daily "dose"!

Enjoying them all, nice variety, thank you all the Robins!

I loved the letter apart from this phrase - we know which one Therese/Elise has sadly.

Many thanks, Robin.

I'd completely forgotten about these, and have just caught up - with a wee laugh at Mademoiselle and the name change. A very clever idea, Robin.

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"All books are either drums or swords. You can cut, or you can drug with words." (Amy Lowell)

Ooooohhh! Very good too!

Loving these - thanks Robins.

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'I'm sorry, I only play for sport.' - Lara Croft

I wondered what subjects we'd cover with these - and the variety so far is amazing! Thank you, Robins

Loving these. Not commenting much as I'm away, with limited bandwidth, but loving them.. Thanks to all concerned.

Thanks Robins. These have been really enjoyable.

Today is a "rest day" (that makes it sound like a Test match, although they don't seem to have rest days in Test matches any more ), so here's a Tyrol-era quiz.

The first letter of each answer should spell out a two-word phrase.


(for individual characters, first names unless otherwise stated)

Family with whom Madge, Jo and Robin spent Christmas in "Jo of"

Young boy who carried some of their baskets to Spartz

Played a sick child in the Christmas play in "Jo Returns"

Dog who stood by the manger during the Christmas play in "Exploits"

The ........ Shepherd - the first ever Chalet School Christmas play

Played "Candle" in the Christmas play in "Exploits"

The church visited on Christmas Eve in "Jo of"

The Spirit of the Christmas .... - played by Evadne in the Christmas play in "Jo Returns"

The city in which Christmas was spent in "Jo of"

(Surname) Escorted Grizel back to England for Christmas in "Jo of"

Norwegian pupil who played the landlord in the Christmas play in "Exploits"

Invited Jo and Robin to spend Christmas with her family just before "Head Girl"

(Surname) Provided cakes for the Annexe pupils on their way to the main school for the play in ""Exploits"

Vater ......, for whose parishioners the CS people sent gifts for Christmas in "Jo Returns"

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Trained to instant obedience

Solved it! I won't spoil it for anyone else by writing the answer though. The same to you, Robin, and thanks for posting the puzzle.

Ditto! Thanks, Robins.

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http://nicolaslade.wordpress.com/

Me too! Nice bit of fun! Thanks Robin.

Thank you Robin! And given whose day it is, here is a little additional entertainment from the land of Sinterklaas....(Jem would have understood the words. I am moved to wonder whether 6th December was/is celebrated in South Africa. Does anyone know?)

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Cestina's dolls houses - Laterne, Laterne...

Not that I know of, but someone else might well know better. The original Dutch settlers in South Africa were very Puritanical - I don't think they'd have been too keen on promoting saints' days .

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

Thanks for the above, Cestina. With the sub-titles I could understand a lot of it. There seems to be quite a lot of controversy in the Netherlands about Zwarte Piet though.

This one sort of answers your question about South Africa.
http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/south_africa.shtml

Yes, that has blown up very considerably in the not too distant past. Certainly when we were spending time with our Dutch friends forty years ago and learned all these songs, it wasn't an issue. Rather like the Robertson's golly.

One can understand why it is now though. One major problem for the Dutch is that Zwarte Piet is present in practically all the traditional songs and banning him would be rather like having to sing carols without mentioning the Babe born in Bethlehem in any way, shape or form....

The Czechs have a devil (who often has either a red or a black face) and an angel accompanying St Nicholas and the Germans have Knecht Ruprecht (Rupert the Knight), all of whom mete out justice to naughty children.

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Cestina's dolls houses - Laterne, Laterne...

Thank you Robins

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'An adventure was one thing. But an adventure without something to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all'
Enid Blyton, The Valley of Adventure

Thank you Robins.

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She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain - Louisa May Alcott

Book blog: https://GiltAndDust.WordPress.com

Briesau am Tiernsee, December 193-
Dear Santa
Last time I wrote a letter to you, I could barely spell out my own name. It must have been at least 10 years ago. The great-aunts didn’t approve of you, or of asking for Christmas presents – just as they didn’t approve of so many things. I’m sure they loved me in their way, but life wasn’t much fun with them.
That’s not really the sort of thing you want to read, I don’t suppose. But so much has happened to me over the past few months that I can’t help thinking back to what my life used to be like. Everything is so different now, there have been so many changes, and I really need to sit down and think about them. So I’m afraid I’m really using this letter as a way of sorting out my own thoughts.
I’m not sure that I want anything particular for Christmas. And I’m very sure that I don’t deserve anything. I’ve always been taught that you only bring presents to good children, and I’m afraid that I haven’t really been good at all this year.
It started off with me running away because I was bored. Looking back, I don’t quite know how I had the nerve to do it. I seem to have become more of a child in the past few months than I was before. But I know that I was careless, thoughtless and selfish. I caused Guardian so much anxiety – I was just lucky that they didn’t find I had gone for a day or so after I left, otherwise I think that the stress might have killed him. And his sister was so ill at the same time. He’s really rather a pet, and has been so kind about it. He could have been really angry, and said that I had to stay under even closer supervision than before, and taken away most of my allowance.
Then, since I’ve been at the School, there are several things I have done that I’m now ashamed of. There was Herr Laubach’s book, for example. That really was an accident – I had no idea that I shouldn’t take it. But it was definitely careless of me to walk along the corridor looking at it. I just didn’t think – that the whole point of us not being allowed to use those books was that they were precious and valuable, and that walking along the corridor with it open was the last thing I should be doing. I was so scared when he was so angry. Although in the end, it turned out for the best – much more than I deserved. He came and saw our Hobbies Club, and offered to help with it. And we found out about his poor wife, and how we could help her entertain herself when he was away. So perhaps you will let me off punishment for that one?
But the other – ringing that bell. I don’t know how I could even have thought that it was a clever thing to do. I really didn’t know that it was meant to wake the whole valley. But waking the whole school was bad enough, on a cold autumn night like that. And I made poor Stacie ill again. Everyone tells me she was horrid when she first came, but she’s really nice and patient now – I really like her, and thanks to me she had to spend several days in bed. I can’t think of any ‘mitigating circumstances’ about that – it would have served me right if the school had refused to keep me – especially when I had run away like that before they ever took me on. They must have been really worried that I was going to keep on doing stupid things.
And that would have been just so awful. Because the main reason I don’t want anything special for Christmas this year is because I have already had the best Christmas present ever. I have gone to school! The one thing I’ve wanted all my life. And not the sort that the great-aunts might have chosen for me, or even what Miss Wilmot might have thought suitable – I’m so glad now that Guardian hadn’t sent me to school in England. I’m now going to such a gorgeous school in such a beautiful place. I’ve never seen anything like that snow over half-term and how wonderful everything looked. Everyone tells me that the flowers are fabulous in the spring. Next term we will ski and skate, and then in the summer we’ll swim in the lake. I’ve got friends, I’ve got teachers who don’t mind me asking questions, and really help me to understand what’s going on. Before this, it was only my Latin lessons which were of any interest at all, but now all of them are – even the German. I know that it’s far more than I deserve after the way I got it. It’s so much better than even the best of the school stories. I’ll still read them, because Guardian was so kind to buy them all for me, and I don’t want him to think I don’t appreciate them. But now I know what life in a school is really like – and I promise I won’t be trying to follow any more stupid ideas about heroines or the ‘mapcap of the school’ doing daring things.
And now I’m going home for Christmas. And I’m really going to think of it as ‘home’. I know it’ll be very quiet, with not much going on – quite different from school. Miss Jane may get on my nerves – she probably will. And if we have snow, it probably won’t be like we have here, and I’ll still hate it. But now I know that it’s only for 4 weeks, I can look forward to it. I’m going to try extra hard to be patient, and Guardian is so kind, really. I think if I reach out to him, we will actually get on quite well and find that we have lots of things to talk about.
So that’s what I want most of all for Christmas. To remember what it’s really all about, to enjoy the company of two people who want to do their best for me, so that when I come back in January, I shall be sorry to say goodbye to them – although not so sorry that I shall be volunteering to stay at home!
Yours sincerely
Polly Heriot.

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Trained to instant obedience