The Sounds of Christmas

Music has always been a HUGE part of my Christmas season. I know every word to every song from the classic animated holiday specials: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Frosty; The Little Drummer Boy; How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Santa Claus is Coming to Town; etc. (And true confessions, I still watch as many of them as I can EVERY year!) I know the words to even obscure verses of most Christmas carols. And because I have sung in choirs and choral groups most of my life, I know a lot of other songs and different arrangements of familiar songs.

Since Dave is a minister of music, we start listening to Christmas music as early as May or June. He has the musical picked out for the church before choir breaks for the summer. But I don’t mind at all – Christmas music is my absolute favorite kind of music – and I would listen to it all year if I could get away with it. Every year, I start pestering to Dave to put our Kenny G Christmas CD in so that we can listen to it as we drift off to sleep. Most nights, I barely make it through the first song. (For the record, on this issue – Dave is adamant that we not start listening to Kenny G until at LEAST the day after Thanksgiving.)

And on top of everything else – there is CAROLING! Walking the neighborhood – with friends and family – singing my heart out – making people smile – Does it get any better than that? The last several years, I have not had any energy by the time the group from church decided to go out caroling. Most years, Dave goes, and I have stayed home, wishing I could be there, but knowing that it would push too far, and I would pay a steep price for the choice. This year, I have every intention of going caroling – and loving every minute of it! Less weight equals more energy, which means that I get to do more things I love to do. And since singing is pretty much at the top of the list, I have plans to be right there in the thick of things!

Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about the BIG ISSUE – food memories of Christmas. I wanted to think about all of the other memories I have that do not have anything to do with food. Separating food from the memories is very helpful for me. And knowing that I can make NEW memories, again separated from food, is good for me.

“We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!”