Christmas is about Music

Christmas is about a hundred different things, but *one* of them is music. We sing Christmas songs all month long in our home. The seminary class sings them every school morning. We sing them in church, go caroling and deliver fudge with our chorusing (not carousing). Christmas eve, we spent almost an hour singing them with my Grandma Billie, a new Christmas tradition (which actually mirrors an old Christmas tradition, one I remember doing more than once with Betty and Blen Stoker).

There was a bittersweet moment this Christmas listening to Max perform as an alumnus with the Maryland State Boychoir for their Lessons and Carols performance last Sunday. I snuck into the hall where they were singing, via a back passage in the basement just to hear him sing "Of the Father's Love Begotten" (a song based on a translation of several passages from Aurelius Clemens Prudentius 5th century poem, "Liber Cathemerinon").

I wept. It was so beautiful, so poignant. It captured, for me, the aching desire we manifest to be perfect, and how we never succeed in that goal, and yet we continue on.

I cannot explain how touching and beautiful it is to hear the layers of voice singing. I loved in the Boychoir arrangement, how after the first verse, one portion of the singers carry a note over at the end of their phrase, and the next line begins underneath of it.

Especially near the end of verse two, when the bass singers go up and down on the word "Redeemer", ending on a solemn B and holding that low reverberating note while the tenors begin singing about Christ revealing his baby face.

How low we go on this earth, how fallen this world becomes, and we fall with it. As low as it is possible to fall! Yet Christ's love and grace carries us back from those deep places, carries us back into the light to feel glorious, new, reborn.

How is it that we can share such beauty and still feel such great anger and frustration with each other?

Yet we continue, we try, we work. Despair is all around us, reasons to stop. I am so glad for Christmas, for songs that inspire and lift me up.

This is a slide show presentation of another mens chorus singing an arrangement similar to that of the Boychoir. "Of the Father's Love Begotten".




"Of the Father's Love Begotten"
by Aurelius C. Prudentius, 413, cento
Translated by John. M. Neale, 1818-1866
and Henry W. Baker, 1821-1977

1. Of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the Source, the Ending He.
Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore.

2. Oh, that birth forever blessed, when the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race.
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer, first revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore.

3. O ye heights of heaven, adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.

4. Christ, to Thee, with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unending praises be.
Honor, glory, and dominion, and eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.

Christmas Songs!

I love Christmas songs. There is a station in Baltimore that switches their whole playlist over to Christmas songs after Thanksgiving. The worst part about the station is their commercial breaks are like 10 minutes long, but we just turn the sound down for that.

It has been rewarding and delightful how cheery and willing our children have been to listen to and sing along with Christmas songs. Somehow we've avoided any grumpiness about the cheesiness or commercialism of Christmas that seems to afflict kids sometimes as they grow into an awareness of the "real" world. Here are some of the songs that have been favorites this year.



I wish there was a real video for this, and not just a karaoke prompt. But it's still one I love to catch when it comes on.



I still remember the year that Max's middle school choir sang this. Nine boys awkwardly shifting from foot to foot trying to his the low notes, it was still awesome.



This was a song that Max's choir sang this year. *Superb*. Christmas, funny, *and* full of puns.



Everytime this comes on the radio, the kids sing along with fervor and delight.



We love Christmas carols, Christmas hymns, funny, serious, reverent ones. I was touched last night as we carolled from house to house by a Father my age who told me he had never had carollers come to his home before.

Merry Christmas!

Sing some songs!

Concert!

Max and Suzanna performed last night as part of the DC Festival of Lights. We were in the front row with a great view of them both. But it's a big auditorium (800? 900 seats?), I was impressed with how cool both of them were performing.

We saw Charlene with her kids, John and Jen Babcock with their whole family, a few other families from our Stake.

Parenting the Imperfect

No, this is not a new pattern, I won't be starting every blog post off with a comic. Well, not unless I keep finding apropos comics...

Our poor house is a mess. We thought we'd have 3 days before the Christmas break to get everything clean, everything ready. Snow days have dashed that plan. There are snow clothes all over the kitchen, the front hallway, and the porch.

The cancellations have disrupted other things as well. Stewart was supposed to be wrestling tonight, and Emma was excited to finally see him in action. But with school cancelled, the meet is off! So that's sad, but now we can go carolling as a family tonight instead. We were going to try and cram it in tomorrow evening, which was the only night that we'd all be home.

This past weekend, we were signed up to help usher Max's concerts Saturday and Sunday night, but they got cancelled too. The Maryland State Boychoir held a single concert Monday night instead, and hoped that the combined crowds from the two cancellations wouldn't be too overwhelming. It was beautiful, of course.

Here are a few videos from Max's concert of the Changed Voice Choir singing Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. I know LDS teaching emphasizes not worshipping Mary, but I wonder sometimes if we shy too much from reverent appreciation on Mary's sacrifice and goodness. The adoration and affection that flows from this piece of music moves me nearly to tears every time I hear it.

Don't watch the videos for the visual quality, it's terrible. Just close your eyes and listen to the music.







Today will be a clean-up day. Our favorite baby is coming for an afternoon of overstimulation. The boys are dreading my repeated sorties into their room to battle the mountain of laundry. The pile of winter clothes is going to be banished to a closet. Perhaps I will just post some "after" pictures once it is clean

No News Is Stressful

Ten days ago, I had a great interview for the job I mentioned in my December 1st post, but haven't heard anything yet. When I think about it, my mind skitters away from dealing with the anxiety of it. It's hard to dwell on an unknown I cannot affect. There are other jobs I am applying for, one in DC that I am waiting for an interview to be scheduled. We keep praying, keep trying to be cheerful

So I focus on what I can affect.

Emma is home!



It snowed all day yesterday!You can see our front bushes slowly disappearing

No church this morning, but our Bishop gave us permission to conduct a short Sacrament service in our home. We were also asked to spend some time in service of our neighbors, and to consider it like the Elders Brigham Young directed to leave conference and go help bring home the stranded wagon trains. We agreed to go up the road to dig out one neighbor that Jennilyn is friends with (her husband is scheduled for hernia surgery). I sent Stewart ahead to get started while I finished our walk (just in case there was Seminary tomorrow).

Poor Stewart. He came back dejected about 30 minutes later. Apparently, he misunderstood the instruction, and went to the wrong house, and had finished about 2/3s of the driveway before the owner came out to ask him what he was doing. We tried to console him that service rendered is still valuable (the family has a severely handicapped son who travels in a wheelchair), but he was beside himself.

We all went back, to the right house this time. While there, our friend asked us if we could dig out the widow that lived across the street.

She has a son that cannot get up to see her very often. IT was a straight, short driveway, I knew we could do it in 20 minutes. As soon as we started on it, the husband/father in the house where Stewart had mistakenly shoveled came out and started up a snowblower. He came across the street and helped us clear out the hardest part, near the street where the plows had heaped snow in crusty chunks. I told Stewart that his help was the dividend we were receiving for his charitable (if mistaken) labor.

As we neared the front door of the widow's house, she came out and asked me how much she should pay us. I told her about our Bishop cancelling our church services, directing us instead to worship simply at home and look to our neighbors to see what help we could extend. She asked what our church was, and I told her.

"You are all fine Christians, and it is just a miracle you've come and dug me out!" I hope the kids remember that.

We are going to finish digging out from our house and walk to my parents' house to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas special and have sacrament there. Probably some cinnamon rolls, too.

The kids have presents to wrap.

Max took Sam and Roxie sledding yesterday. I am sure they will be out playing again tomorrow. Today is a good day to sort through all the winter clothes and gear that we just put in a box and hid away last Spring. It is a good day.

Busy Week, Busy Weekend

Saturday, it was cold. While Mrs. L. ran the birthday party at home and Stewart wrestled, I took the rest of the clan to Max's outdoor concert. We figured out the best way to stay warm was to huddle.


Can you see those great big awesome wintry flakes?

Because somebody wanted to know, this is what the broken table looked like while it was being fixed. So far, so good!

A highlight of the week was having a baby to play with! She was eating in the kitchen because . . . well, see the picture right above this one.

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

"[The Prophet Joseph Smith] loved learning. He loved knowledge for its righteous power. Through the tribulations which had surrounded him from the day when first he made known to a skeptical world his communion with the heavens, he had been ever advancing in the acquisition of intelligence. The Lord had commanded him to study, and he was obeying. … His mind, quickened by the Holy Spirit, grasped with readiness all true principles, and one by one he mastered these branches and became in them a teacher."

--George Q. Cannon

This inspired me Sunday. What knowledge am I pursuing? Do I love the getting of wisdom? There is more to learn than there is time to study, of this I am certain. Surely the Lord will guide our pursuits, if we seek his input.

So, resolved; I will seek more earnestly to know how I should spend my time in learning.

What Makes It Feel Like Christmas?

You'll be doin' all right, with your Christmas of white
But I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas!

I'm not sure where I come down on the epic question of holiday aesthetics. Which is more sublime, more wondrous? The Elvis version or the Porky Pig version? I guess you could say . . . I am of two minds about it!

The inestimable Mrs. L asked in Family Home Evening before December started, "What makes it feel like Christmas?" She wanted us to participate in making it feel more like the holiday, so the Spirit could surround us. The answers were enlightening.

Singing Christmas songs! Which we've been doing every night after reading a loop from Mrs. L's Christmas advent paper chain.

Going caroling! Which we are going to go do as soon as number one daughter gets home from BYU.

Making Cookies, decorating the tree. Snowy weather was one suggestion, but not one I have any control over. Putting up our outside lights. One thing that makes it feel like Christmas is the crush of events, concerts, and school functions that swamps our calendar, which while tiring, is very, very rewarding.

One thing I love is hearing Christmas songs. The sappy holiday favorites. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". The radio station that signal's a surrender to middle age, Lite-FM 101.9 , switches its programming to all holiday favorites after Thanksgiving. And I love it.

Well, in small doses anyway. I realized after hearing George Michael sing "Last Christmas" for the third time in one day that 101.9 only has about three or four hours of Christmas Songs, so the likelihood of repeats is depressingly high. So it doesn't take too long before I start to switch away from the station when one of the sappier repeats rolls by.

But not so for The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy Versus the Red Baron". I could listen to that on a loop for at least two or three days. Add Thurl Ravenscroft's excellent baritone singing about bad bananas and arsenic sauce in "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch", that is holidays, baby! What can I say? I love cartoons.

Though I have noticed a distinct and disheartening lack of The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" on that station. Maybe it's just a little too alternative? Never fear, the internets holds everything in its infinite grasp, you can listen to it here!

But the thing that makes it feel the most like holidays? My family. I love having them around. Seeing them, talking to them, playing with them.

ahem


Kissing them!

Make the holidays happy!