Music Monday.......late

Well worth your time to check this guys other hundreds of songs on youtube. Being unable to carry much of a tune myself, I am in awe of those who can pull off acapella music.

Edit, Add, Appreciate

View Full Album

Edit- I did it! I broke through the barrier that has paralyzed me for years as I struggled to get the Halloween decor out of the way before Christmas was truly here. I also did something that I hope I remember to do next year. I took all of the fall stuff down, and left the living room bare for a few days, then began working the Christmas stuff in at a leisurely pace rather than the one all nighter I used to pull switching out the seasons. Gave me lots of time to appreciate the layers and layers of memories that each of my decorations come wrapped with.

Add- I won’t say what, but we did do a little decorating that we’ve never done before. I think we are all just so excited to have the 2 college kids come home that we have had more fun getting things ready for their homecoming.

View Full Album

Appreciate- Our Advent worship has been building on a series- A Light In the Window was the first week. Yesterday was A Knock At the Door. Next week is A Quickening of the Heart, followed by Christmas Sunday when we celebrate A Meal At The Table. I am enjoying the incremental process of preparing my heart for the Christ child.

8-ish Things

So, I’ve been perusing my extensive iTunes Christmas playlist in the hopes of coming up with a top 8 and it just couldn’t be narrowed down to that, especially since I like each song for different reasons. That being the case, I’m breaking it down a bit.

8 Christmas Songs that Really make me happy and possibly drive too fast

1. This is where the “ish” comes in. The number one choice is, well, two. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t allow Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, and on that great day I wake the kids up with the music blaring and the first two songs are my favorites just because they have been at the top of the wake-up list for years. They are Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by NSync AND Christmas Time’s A Comin’ by Emmylou Harris.

2. I feel so shallow revealing the song that really means Christmas to me. The reason it makes me happy is so simple- the beat is fun and when the girls were little we heard it in the car on the way to a nighttime basketball game and we had such fun grooving to it in the car that it will forever have this happy happy association…..and so my friends- it is Hey Santa by Carnie and Wendy Wilson.

3. Feliz Navidad. Yes, we sing along with Jose’ every time, singing in syllables, not words, having no idea what we are singing.

4. My parents had the classic Bing Crosby Christmas album and I love every single song on it, but Mele Kalikimaka is the one I’m most likely to sing along with.

5. Christmas Don’t Be Late by Alvin and Chipmonks. It is what it is. Just can’t help it. One year in the office I worked in they let us bring in Christmas tapes and they played it while we worked. Let me say that while this one song is fun and brings back fun memories, there really was no good reason for the Chipmonks to have recorded an entire album nor for my coworker to have bought it and brought it in.

6. Just plain fun, good beat and easy to dance to- gotta love Run Rudolph Run by Sheryl Crow

7. While the Beach Boys were fine enough, I prefer Straight No Chaser’s version of Little Saint Nick.

8. This year I have a tie on my newest favs- Christmas Won’t be the Same by the Plain White T’s, and then although we don’t have tv, I’d have to live on another planet to not have heard about Glee, and I’m loving their version of Last Christmas.

And to show you that I love to balance my fun with the bittersweet, I give you my list of songs that make me cry pretty much every time.

1. I’ll Be Home for Christmas- by pretty much anyone EXCEPT Alvin and the Chipmonks.

2. Walking in the Air by George Winston which is from the Snowman soundtrack. That song is so beautiful, but it always reminds me of a sadness that my family experienced on Christmas a good 20 years ago.

3. I love this song in it’s own rite, but also love that C sang it in church and so it’s a double happy cry for me for me when I hear Joseph’s Lullaby by MercyMe.

4. The Magnificat by Down To Earth- This is a very very integral part of my church family Christmas, so I love not only the song and the singer, but the piece of home it grounds me to each year.

5. So mellow and sweet- James Taylor singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

6. Because it stirs me deep inside, All We Like Sheep from Handel’s Messiah.

7. My very dear friend Faye introduced me to Amy Grant’s Tennessee Christmas. I liked it well enough and always thought of her when I heard it, but it nearly broke my heart the first year after she moved back to Tennessee and I was missing her so much, and still evokes a sad feeling of that loss all these years later.

8. Christmas Canon by Transiberian Orhestra because my sweet K who is so tender and earnest LOVES it, and that alone makes me weepy.

Okay……truth be told, I was a bit hurt tonight when I saw that on facebook there is a group called BAN THE CHRISTMAS SHOES SONG. Am I the only person left in the world who still gets a tad bit weepy over that one? Or how about the one called Christmas Carol about the orphan who gets adopted on her birthday which happens to be Christmas…..and her name is Christmas Carol. Truth be told, I bet you do too.

A letter to Geraldine

Dear Geraldine- 

Today would have been your 44th birthday.   Ten years ago when two heartbroken little girls came to live with us, their grief counselor taught me to build in as many traditions and rituals to their lives as possible to help them frame up a new normal.

One of those traditions has been to celebrate you every year on your birthday.  Until only a few years ago, the girls baked a red velvet cake every year.  Every year, we have each written a letter to you which S has been the faithful steward of, hiding them away under her bed in a box.  The first year, we lit the candles on your cake and decided to each read the letter we had written to you aloud.  The girls letters were pretty conversational, updating you on the things they were involved in like learning to ride a bike and being on the basketball team.  Mine was a letter of love and thankfulness that you had entrusted these treasures to us.  When I couldn’t read it without crying, DH took it to read….but he couldn’t make it through either, and then we both felt a little silly as the girls seemed bewildered.  You see, they have continued a long and newsy conversation with you all along, so it is less sentimental than practical to them.

Today I place the 10th letter to you into S’s tender care.  It says the same thing this year that it has said every year.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  You could have picked two people who had way more experience at parenting, you could have picked a black mother who would have known better how to do their hair, you could have picked a family with better financial resources.  You could not have picked anyone who would have loved them any more. 

Wednesday Link Love

There are some great ideas here on displaying your Christmas cards. I don’t anticipate a lot of cards this year…..because most of the people who send me cards have probably dropped me off the list after a couple of years of not hearing from me. My goal is to at least send a few- I have a few old friends that I hear from once a year at Christmas and I love hearing about their lives even though we will likely never even see each other again. I used to not care for the old Christmas letters, probably because for about 20 years I think ours surely said, “Sue is still single, still living in the same tiny apartment, and still working in insurance.” But then I had kids…….and I could not resist updating folks on their ages, grades, what sports they were playing, what instruments they were learning, blah blah blah. Hey, I feel a letter coming on.

I am a sucker for a tender blog post, and this one hit the spot.

The latest from Improv Everywhere, and what a fun one it is!

Check out the cool matchbox advent calendar. What a fun swap!

I wouldn’t have to own it- if I could just go there from time to time and take a nap in that white room and get a soda out of the turquoise fridge and then step outside to the beach!

Amazing

So, it’s 11:58 and I’m about to say good-night to facebook when a friends status says to run right out and look at the moon, that it would be worth the bracing cold………and I did……and it was……and it looked like this- actually much cooler than this, but this is the closest picture I could find. It looks like the clouds have opened in a perfect circle, a rainbow is around the edges of those clouds, and then smack in the middle is the moon! Anyone know what this is called?

Edit, Add, Appreciate

Edit- Call me a sentimental old sap…..because, well, I am. I loved having three towels hanging on the kids’ towel rack all weekend so much that this morning I couldn’t even bear to take the other two down for the laundry. All day long I felt “homesick”, wishing I were at home and that so were all of my kids for just one more day of bantering. Truth is, after one more day the magic would probably have worn off and we could have easily all been at each other’s throats. Anyway, I miss them.

Add- For the last several years I have found myself so far behind on the decorating schedule that I have just surrendered and hung the advent stockings between two jack o’lanterns. This year I have a goal to have at least the fall stuff cleared away and maybe even some Christmas stuff out by the end of the week. Ask me on Sunday how successful I’ve been! The kids made me promise not to decorate the tree until they are home. Are you kidding? I’ve been letting them decorate that tree for years and I stay completely out of it! Why would I start back now? It will be waiting for them when they get home.

Appreciate- Last week was my nephew’s birthday. Nineteen years ago on the day before Thanksgiving, that sweet baby turned my world upside down. Everything from that point is marked in my heart as before Brandon or after Brandon. I fell in love with that boy in a way I had never loved another person, and my heart was (and is still) completely wrapped around his tiny finger. There is just nothing greater in life than being an aunt. (Well, rumor is that being a grandmother is pretty wonderful!) The down side is that I can name, and flinch when I do it, almost everything that has ever made him sad because it has made me sad too. Recently he has had a major heartbreak, and I’d give everything I have to make him happy again, but I know he will find his own way, and he is already doing a good job at that. I am loving watching the man he is growing into. He loves to help others more than anyone I’ve ever seen. He has big dreams of working in politics someday, and I am excited beyond words that he wants to work to make the world a better place. Never mind that we are not aligned on much politically! I am just so proud of him. It makes me over the moon happy that he is such good friends with my kids. On the day that he was born, the world became so so rich, and I am one wealthy woman to get to be his aunt.