It's a tradition, something I've done with my family since I was a young girl, a tradition that we have continued together year after year after year. A brunch of seafood chowder from Monahan's, and bee-bim bop from Kosmo. Shopping and browsing and giggling and taking pictures.
No matter how cold it is, this is the warmest time of year.
We had quite the day today. In spite of my best plans for keeping this week low key, calm, and relaxing, today ended up being a real doosy, none of it having anything to do with Christmas or getting ready for Christmas. Suffice to say, at the end of the day we were lucky to have made it to swimming, practiced a little piano, and gotten dinner on the table. So we unwound with a family video night.
I am a slave to nostalgia and over the years we have collected nearly all of the Christmas classics, for young and old. Last year the only one we watched with Calvin was Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas with Calvin. It's a good one—probably my favorite. This year we decided it was time to bring out a few of the others as well. We've already watched Calymation a couple of times this month, so tonight we watched two of my other favorites: A Charlie Brown Christmas, and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (oh the music! Although watching it now with Calvin I found myself cringing as they sang "let up a little on the wonder why" eek! Don't do that!).
Jon and I have a Christmas Eve tradition of filling stockings, setting out santa gifts, putting on the final touches, then lighting a fire and sitting down to watch Meet Me in St. Louis with a night-cap of scotch. It's a good tradition.
I remember Christmas as kid. Those last few days seemed to shimmer and vibrate with excitement. Presents piled up around the tree, the stockings were hung, school was out, joy, joy, joy. I'm sure excitement around the already riveting holiday is exacerbated by increased amounts of sugar. We've baked (and cooked) for one party or another at least once weekly since Thanksgiving.
So now that the presents are mostly bought and wrapped, the cards are out, the crafts are made, I'm trying to keep the rest of this week as normal as possible. Swimming lessons, library trips, some errands, laundry.
Calvin finished the last section of his Alpha math book today and filled out the accomplishment certificate in the back for himself. Then he asked for more. Good thing I ordered the next book.
I actually got most of our wrapping done really early this year. So early that I left he packages in the basement a couple of extra weeks to keep the pet hair attraction to a minimum (pet hair loves ribbon). Of course the number of packages needing to be wrapped seems to increase over time. Exponentially. It's like laundry, up to a certain point. Calvin is a good helper when it comes to taping and tying, and he has positioned Jon's fluffy penguin so as to protect the presents under the tree from unwanted intrusion. Or perhaps he is trying to hatch them? You be the judge.
Today was recital day. We baked treats, we started a crock-pot dinner, we practiced the piano like crazy, we straightened the house. The recital went well. Some of Jon's students have come and gone over the years, but a couple of them have been around for us to watch grow up. There's a certain joy in that. I realized today that I've been baking for recitals for about seven years now, although it feels a little different now that our own child is among the performers. Calvin seemed to take it all in stride, and he did well, but apparently I got nervous enough for him that I forgot start the video camera on time, and I failed to take any stills while was playing. Thankfully we shot his practice session at home.
After the recital we came back to our house with all four grandparents for that crock-pot dinner and some more piano, this time some good old fashioned Christmas carols. The art of caroling through the neighborhood seems to have perished, but carols around the spinet are another matter, at least in our house. We each have our favorites, be they traditional or more modern, and we have enough piano books around here, and piano players, to have every song covered, so we play and sing a lot and it was fun to share it with our families, too. Calvin did the playing tonight from his newest Christmas book.
Obviously we're music fans around here, and Christmas music is something that we collect—not just for the piano, but recorded music as well. Like with Christmas books, we buy each other a new album, or at least a new song or two, every year. We have sort of eclectic taste, and our collection ranges from big band swing to traditional classical, and some more modern pop collections. Some of our favorite albums from over the years (not in any order):
And O Holy Night as performed on Studio 60 on the Sunset Stripby Trombone Shorty and a group of musicians from New Orleans just getting back on their feet after hurricane Katrina—one of our all-time favorite finds. It's a stunning and emotional arrangement worth hearing, although I'm not sure it's still available or download anywhere.
Plus we're always open to new suggestions if anyone has any...we're still looking for this year's awesome, eclectic album to add to our collection.
12 days of Christmas, 
