[Titanic] I can't help myself

On Christmas Eve, people in the entire castle got up early and started preparing for Christmas.The servants set about sprucing up the entire castle and doing another sweeping sweep.The job of the hosts is to decorate the Christmas tree. The largest tree is located in the lobby. Standing in the corridor on the second floor, you can reach the top of the tree, and the angel to be placed on the top of the tree is placed in this way.There were also two smaller Christmas trees, nearly eight feet tall, in the dining room and drawing room.If you are still interested, you can continue to decorate a few small Christmas trees that are only half the height of a person and put them in the bedroom.These Christmas trees arrived the day before yesterday, and after a simple treatment, they were placed in their proper place by the servants.

The Christmas holiday will last until January [-] next year, a total of ten days, and Acton will give the servants a five-day holiday in batches.Only half of the people stayed in the castle to serve, and they had to work overtime to make preparations in advance, so as not to inconvenience the masters during the holiday due to insufficient manpower.

There were two children, Madeleine and Thomas, and their ingenuity made the work of arranging the Christmas tree extra cheerful and interesting. Even the mother and Aunt Violet, who had been at war for the past two days, seemed much more relaxed and loving. .They sat on the sofa not far away, together with Viscount Stewart, looked at everyone's arrangement, and chatted a few words from time to time.

Mrs. Darrence, Carol, Rose, and Rebecca seemed to have become good friends during this time. They chatted together and discussed what to put on the Christmas tree, and laughed sweetly from time to time.Emily, on the other hand, stood ten feet away from them with a look of disdain, holding small colored balls and hanging them on the branches alone, as if she wanted to draw a line with them.Seeing this, James' complexion sank, but in the end he recovered his bright smile, walked to his wife, and started discussing with the girls.

Uncle Robert and Connelly and their two children sat around two small Christmas trees, which were to be placed in the two children's rooms, so Madeleine and Thomas looked particularly nervous and happy. Seriously, according to children's aesthetics, it is full of decorations, and each branch is decorated with lace flowers, bows, gingerbread, little stars and other small ornaments, and they are wrapped around one after another. A dense circle of Christmas lights.

I watched Robert and Uncle Connery each hold a child in their arms, and from time to time put their heads close to whispering, and suddenly felt strangely that the scene was as warm as a family of four.Oh no, I can't think that all men should like the same sex just because of my sexuality.I couldn't help shaking my head, as if that would shake the thought out of my mind.

"What's wrong with you?" Carl's voice came out suddenly, "Is your head uncomfortable?"

"No." I took a step back calmly and quietly, and distanced myself from him. The ornaments in their hands climbed up the ladder and hung on the branches.

We had been busy for a whole morning, and we didn't get all dressed up until before lunch. When we turned on the lights, everyone couldn't help applauding.At this time, the servants coming and going were peeking at the door, with amazed expressions on their faces, and the old housekeeper Charles immediately went over to drive them away, telling them to return to their work quickly.

"Oh, it's too dazzling, it doesn't look like a Christmas tree at all." Aunt Violet pretended to cover her eyes, "I said, you can't use these messy things, if you have to be like Americans, then Christmas is going to be weird."

At this time, for nobles, especially old nobles, electricity is still too fashionable. They always try to avoid using new things as much as possible, until they can no longer avoid it or the benefits it brings are too obvious, and then reluctantly regress .

In fact, her mother's attitude towards electricity was the same as Aunt Violet's, but of course she couldn't agree with Aunt Violet's words now, so as not to weaken her momentum.

"Glaring? The light of these fairy lights is only a little brighter than the stars." Mother looked at the Christmas tree with an admiring expression, "Violet, such a faint light will make you feel dazzling, maybe you should see a doctor Now, let’s see if there is something wrong with the eyes. Elderly people always suffer from various diseases, and a little negligence will cause irreparable losses.”

The two old ladies taunted each other as they came and went, while Viscount Stewart, who was sitting beside him, seemed not to hear him, but concentrated on looking at the Christmas tree, and finally his eyes fell on the portrait on the wall.The father in the portrait looked down at the whole hall with a smile on his face.

No one wanted to persuade the fight, so I had to check the time and interrupted: "Everyone has worked hard. Although the gong has not been struck yet, let's go back to the room to rest and change clothes."

In the afternoon, everyone basically rested in their rooms, preparing for the midnight mass tomorrow morning.Acton's midnight mass began exactly at twelve o'clock in the morning, which was midnight on Christmas Day, and the whole town would come to the church at that time.So on the night of Christmas Eve, after dinner, we would sit and chat together in the living room, and when the time came, we would leave for the church to attend mass.

Midnight Mass is much more formal than weekdays and weekends, but also much more cheerful.Everyone sang a lot of hymns with cheerful melodies, and the whole church was filled with the atmosphere of festive joy.What the residents of the town look forward to the most is a regular content in the midnight mass-the Nativity play, the actors are all the children in the town.Every kid was in the show at least once, Rose played Maria twice as a child, and I played Mary's husband Joseph once.In retrospect, rehearsing and performing with a group of children who can't speak well is one of the most boring, helpless, painful and embarrassing things I have ever experienced.

The little girl who performed Maria on the stage forgot her words as she spoke, looked at the audience nervously and blankly, couldn't help but put her fingers in her mouth, and began to bite her nails.The pastor had no choice but to walk over, squatted halfway beside her, and taught her lines line by line.The audience let out good-natured laughter.After the play was over, the pastor preached the Gospel again. Everyone stood up and sang a few hymns. Finally, under the leadership of the pastor, they prayed a prayer, thanking the heavenly Father and blessing the future. The midnight mass ended.

We returned to the castle in the dark, the masters went upstairs to catch up on sleep, and the servants had a short rest to get up to work and put the finishing touches on our Christmas preparations.

According to the custom, after breakfast on Christmas day, the master will hand over Christmas presents to all the servants in the hall, including the most low-level handyman, send Merry Christmas wishes, and thank them for their hard work and dedication this year.

All the gifts were prepared by Rose herself, and I secretly allocated a lot of money to her, hoping to save people's hearts through her hands.In the past, it was a very honorable thing to be a servant in the mansion of an aristocrat. The servants in many manors belonged to a family that had served a family for generations.But now, this job has gradually lost its competitiveness in terms of social relations and salary, and many people have chosen to resign and go to big cities to find other jobs.Most of the nobles don't see or don't want to see this, they only know how to complain about their servants' refusal to keep their feet on the ground, their laziness and their laziness, but they refuse to improve their treatment.Hopefully these thoughtful Christmas presents will dampen their resignation, after all a handy servant can save a lot of trouble.

The process of giving gifts was mainly done by Rose, who could call out the names of all the servants, while the mother just stood aside with a reserved and noble smile.The servants who received the gifts looked very happy, and I saw many maids almost screaming in surprise.Seeing this, Rose exchanged a smug look with Rebecca and Carol.

After delivering the gifts, the servants will organize their own carnival downstairs, enjoy a delicious meal provided by the master, play games, dance and so on, and then half of them can start Enjoyed five days of vacation.And we would exchange gifts and wishes in the living room.

This is Madeleine and Thomas' favorite part.On the small table in the living room, there are exquisite small cards with blessings for others.The two children first rummaged through the cards on the table, and after finding the card addressed to them, they read out the content aloud. If Uncle Connery hadn't told them that these cards would be kept until tomorrow, they would have immediately Put away your own cards.They were even more excited when unwrapping the presents. They screamed in surprise from time to time, holding the presents and throwing themselves into the arms of the giver happily, sending a kiss to express their gratitude.Their most honest and passionate venting of emotion infected us grown-ups, and even the most serious Viscount Stuart smiled broadly.

My mother gave me a watch, and Rose gave me an oil painting that seemed to belong to Impressionism. This style of painting is not yet accepted by the mainstream in this era, but anyway, I don’t know how to appreciate it. The painting looks very beautiful and harmonious in color and light.Seeing the gift Rose gave me, Aunt Violet wanted to say something, but her mother stopped her and dragged her to another place.Robert sent a collection of treatises on mechanics which he had compiled himself, Cousin Connery gave me a record, Viscount Stuart gave me a hardcover Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations; This collection of poems, but when I opened this collection of poems, I unexpectedly found that there was something similar to an invitation card in it. This invitation card was printed with exquisite patterns and exuded a sweet fragrance.I think this is the real gift he wants to give me, so I couldn't help but glance at him, James raised his eyebrows frivolously when he saw me looking at him, gave me a meaningful smile, and then chatted with other people .

The author has something to say: the second part of entering V~~~