For the Love of Music....

Time is running down now -almost midnight and it will be Christmas Eve. Already. Again!

Where does the time go that it seems now to move so much faster than ever before, ya know.

When I was a kid, it seemed to drag, on and on, forever, that year from one Christmas to the next and yet, those years -so many now -are all like a flash in the pan that they came and went by so darned quickly.

Bear with me a bit as I wax a little nostaligic most likely this week. Christmas tends to do that to me.

I'm lucky, I think, in that I do have many, many memories of wonderful times spent with family over the Christmas holidays for the first 18 years, at least, of my life.

One of the things I remember very vividly about those days with my aunts, uncles and cousins though always involved music -lots and lots of music, with my Mom or once in a blue moon, my Aunt Mamie playing the piano and my cousins and I all gathered around who ever was the pianist, along with a couple of adults and usually our Grandfather, and we joined voices and sang lots and lots of Christmas carols.

Sometimes, we would be doing the Christmas carol songfest here when my Dad's baby sister, my Aunt Mike, would arrive and we'd even get her to join us too. (She, like so many in my Dad's family, had a whole lot of musical ability too -beautiful alto voice and she was also the organist/choir director too at her church in Morrisdale, in addition to teaching music too at the school in that town as well. We did have a good assortment of family members who could carry a tune and even harmonize very well -especially with my Grandpa joining us with his beautiful, rich, clear bass voice!

So, when my granddaughter, Miss Maya, came along and early on, it seemed that she too has a good bit of musical ability in her, this made me especially happy to see that in her.

She has been a part of the children's choir in our church since she was five years old now and has even learned one of my favorite hymns in Swedish too! Quite a coup for a five year old to manage to do that, don't 'cha think?

One of the toys she received early on -when she was about 3 or barely over that -was a toy, but it was a workable toy too. It consisted of a tape cassette player as well as a recorder complete with a microphone too. She loved it but unfortunately, pretty much wore out the batteries so quickly from playing with it that we couldn't afford to keep it working then! (I think she also just wore it out from use too though!)

Because of her love of music though, her aides and therapists have often given her gifts for Christmas or her birthday that involved musical things. And one year, for her birthday, they pooled their resources and gave her a more grown up version of the cassette player/recorder she'd had when she was little. This one also featured the ability to use it as a karaoke machine too! Just what she needed.

She hasn't played with that in a while lately mainly because she's currently really into watching videos on youtube of girls dancing, doing ballet and gymnastics -that's her fad right now. But I supposed there will come a day soon enough when she will rediscover that karaoke capability in that unit in her bedroom -sitting quietly now, waiting for her interests to shift back to it again and who knows, we may find ourselves searching of a pcdj at Musician's Friend to get her to keep that machine up to par on all levels then.

Meanwhile, today now, we will be heading out to church in the afternoon for the first (the "early") service which will be mainly music and the children's choir will have a special number they will be performing at that service. You can bet your bottom dollar too that Gram will have her little digital camera in tow and at the right time, will be clicking on the video capacity of that unit to capture the music with both my Grandchildren -Maya and Kurtis, too -involved! (Kurtis sometimes is a bit iffy about the singing stuff. He goes to practice, seems all geared up for it and then, sometimes at the drop of a hat, will change his mind and flat out refuse to participate. So here's hoping today is not one of those non-participating days for him!)

Then, late tonight, we will try to venture back out into the cold and attend the second service at church which will begin at 10 p.m. That service is also one that is music-laden and will begin with the senior choir singing a capella from the Narthex of the church, the Swedish Carol I love so dearly -"Lyssna, Lyssna!"

And once again, Christmas will have arrived and gone too but not before hearing and sharing lots and lots of beautiful Christmas music and songs!