So...first of all my sister is gaining strength! She is able to do more things in her quest for independence, even though the Dr. tells her she will not be able to do that very deed! She admits that she knows the happenings and eventual outcome but she is still going to do as much for herself as she can.
Note to Natalie: That is amazing the coincidence of your daughter's wedding reception being in the back yard of our current Yakima Mission President's Utah home. To think they are special friends! Truly a small world. (Natalie left a comment a couple of blogs back. She and Dixie are the same age and were cheerleaders in high school for all 4 years)
*****************************
A totally different Christmas for us this year but before I get to Christmas I just have to say how much I love Christmas music, especially sacred music. I went to a couple of concerts and the highlight of the local Community Choir?-- one of my Laurels, Sophie, was the Special Guest Soloist. She was outstanding!! Standout of that evening for sure!
As far as Choir experiences- the highlight of all the Christmas music I listened to, was the Selah Stake Christmas Concert. It was by far the absolute best Church Concert I've ever heard!! (and I've heard a lot of them!!)
The Chapel has several ledges up near the Choir seats, by organ, by piano, across front, Sacrament table...you get the drift. So they garlanded across the front and then they had a bank of poinsettias on all of those ledges. Costco purchased the oversize ones and the regular sized ones and it was just a gorgeous bank of flowers. The 45+ voice choir wore black skirts/pants- white blouses/shirts and a red scarf for the women. They removed several of the front pews and had an orchestra of probably 25, all dressed in formal black. everything was costumed to color perfection right down to 40? young girls, 8-9?, all dressed in white dresses. And a youth choir and on and on and on. The most outstanding singing ever!! Best Program outline I've ever seen!
The director was just amazing. I happened to be sitting where I could see her and that music direction just streamed through her fingers with such power! She was like a dancer! She was just making magic happen and when they got into the 3 Messiah songs, there were times that I just felt enveloped in this beautiful roaring swell and wondered if that was the sound of the angels when Christ was born. It was sheer heaven!! Sigh.
True it's over and done but that memory is so vivid that I feel that beauty again in the telling.
Tears rolled down my cheeks for sure.
Plus I love the Messiah music! (I will tell you about my Choir experience with it. real soon!)
**********************************
Do you regift? My Grandmother Clark did.
She enjoyed using her dictionary. It was wearing out with dog-eared pages and tears and straight pins holding pages in place- etc. Plus her eyesight wasn't very good.
My Mother decided to find her the perfect dictionary with large print. After lots of shopping she found the ideal dictionary for Grandmother. She glued a piece of fabric, about 4" wide, inside the cover, over the front & back spine area, so it wouldn't tear. As I recall the book was about 6 inches deep and probably 12"x14". it was very heavy. Huge!
I was in Alaska and my Mother in Idaho and my Grandmother was in Missouri. My Mother told me about finding the perfect dictionary for her and that she had mailed it off for Christmas.
I eventually saw it, with my own eyes, when it arrived in my mailbox, from my Grandmother, with a note...Emogene gave me this and I don't want it as I already have a good dictionary.
My Mother was not pleased with Grandmothers generosity.
************
So all month long we listened to Christmas music. We had no trappings of Christmas it seemed. Things already looked a bit bare because we hadn't put things back after the paint job as we thought we'd put out Christmas. Then we couldn't get to things. Then we couldn't get things out that we could get to! We knew that we'd not put out our big tree that we love. We knew that we'd given the Christmas houses away. We knew we had a big box of Nativities ...somewhere. We knew the garland for over the mirror was behind a stationary bike. We also knew we had garlands that we love and we did know where one of the 2 boxes was! So there you go...the majority of excuses on why we didn't decorate. Oh, and we gave our outdoor/McCall tree to Goodwill as it had some branches that needed mending and a some problems with lights.
Then Terry saw our big huge wreath so that got hung. Then Jeanee got 3 garlands and put them out. On top of things...not hung because we took hooks down when painting was done. Then I brought out my lone Nativity that I keep in my office and also moved our favorite village house on piano with garland.
We started really missing a tree. So we bought a beautiful overpriced 4.5' tree from Hobby Lobby. Truly it was gorgeous. On the 20th we confessed to each other that we liked big trees and this was to small even sitting on a plant stand. So...I took it back! Looked at the others and just left.
I just didn't want to buck the traffic, weather and shoppers looking for a tree so we opted for placing a poinsettia gift and put a tree skirt there and some white beads. Festive but not a tree!
My tree for NEXT year will be here on Tuesday! it's a steal of a deal. free shipping and it's 7' tall and has lights on it! We are ready!!...for 2016. we weren't ready for 2015. This new tree only weighs 20 pounds!! our other tree (that we have loved for years!) weighs a ton and is in a hugh box.
So....next year we will enjoy a big tree. I learned from this experience that there are certain things that you just flat out enjoy and that it really contributes to the Christmas feeling...the Christmas spirit in your home because it just makes you happy. Cozy. comfy. reminiscent mood.
We found that we enjoy a garland over the mirror and other garlands, the nativity sets, at least one Christmas house and a really big tree. Next year will be wonderful when all of that happens!!
***********************
I hope your Christmas was wonderful!! No matter what is happening or not happening with ornaments etc...really, what does matter is the fact that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and that is the greatest of all things to think about and enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment