Christmas Eve this year found us visiting back in Michigan with the extended
families rather than home with just the little group residing at The Mole Hole.
The plan on where, and with whom, we spend the Eve and the actual Day with, must
remain flexible with the day of the week Christmas actually falls, and how that
interacts with school and work vacations.
We spent the Eve with one "side" and had a wonderful get together
that broke up around 9:00. We had a half-hour ride home, but extended it a bit
with a detour through the little town that that I spent my teenage years in. We
had heard that they had a really neat, new "tradition" of lighting
all of the downtown buildings with miniature lights, and that it was a
must-see.
Almost to Main Street, we passed by one of the homes that I had lived in
there, this one for my 13th and 14th Christmases. I pointed it out to my
daughter and she thought the old house, an all brick, slate-roofed Tudor built
in 1919, looked pretty "cool". I'm sure that I'd shown it to her before,
but probably three or four years ago, thus not remembered by an 11-year old
mind.
Next came the rows of neighborhood streets branching off left and right, and I
was delighted to see that the real tradition of lighting the curbs of each
street with real luminarias was still there. That is the one thing I remember most fondly about
Christmas in this little suburban village. My sisters and I would walk
some of these streets on our way to Midnight Mass at the Lutheran Church that
was near home. In the cold and snowy Christmases that were more commonplace
back then, it was a heart-warming sight to see and experience out in the
December night.
We finally got to Main Street and it was a indeed a sight to see. Lights of
every color covered every building and business downtown, and hung in every
tree. Nothing that I think is all that original, but definitely a lot of work
for the folks, I'm sure, and very pretty.
So notching up fifty-some Christmases this year with a chance to see something old
and something new. No snow, unfortunately, but there's a plus to that too, considering we are traveling by car!
We lay our heads down after a long, tiring, but joyful day. No sugarplums
dancing in our heads, but thankful for health, family and for the ultimate gift
of the Christ-child on this night, long ago.
'Tis the season, and once again the music that makes Christmas so special is everywhere. In fact, in some places out on the FM dial, it was playing before our jack-o-lanterns started to mold! Even for me, that's a tad early.
Late this afternoon I had some work to do on the computer. Daughter was on the sofa next to me snoozing after a day of Christmas shopping and I just felt like I could use a little of that great music in the background. Fortunately, I have my wonderful little ipod loaded with lots of various artists and their interpretation of the holiday sound. So, I strapped on the headphones to enjoy and not bother another soul.
One of my most favorite Christmas albums of all time is a recording of a dozen of the classics by the Hollywood Bowl Symphony orchestra. The original recording was done in 1964. I first heard it in 1966 on an LP that my mom owned. I think she still has it. I was eight years old, absolutely geeked about Christmas, and played that album endlessly on her walnut Magnavox console stereo.
Back then, when everyone else in the house would tire of my endless playing of it, I would plug in the Christmas lights on the tree, put the album on softly, and sit down, hunched against one end of the console and put my ear close to the big speakers behind the fabric grille.
What struck me tonight was how, 45 years later, I can sit and listen to that exact same recording, lost in that wonderful music and the spirit of the holiday that it brings, and do it on a little device that contains about 1500 other songs and weighs less than one vacuum-tube from that old Magnavox!
This is Christmas tradition defined: A thing, a place, or a memory that transcends decades of progress and change, to remain forever in our hearts.
All right; it has been a while. I know. Apologies to those few who drop in now and then to read my humble jottings, only to have found some mighty sparse offerings this year.
There are a lot of different reasons I could offer, but there are really only two that I'll put out there: First, I had the good fortune to return to work after so many months off. Second, that new job forced the family to move to a new home. These two major events contribute a lot of lesser things too, and the result was that I kind of got out of the habit of writing, or even thinking about writing. And that's not good for me.
So now that winter is starting to set in, the long hours of darkness and cold weather have forced me into my easy chair earlier in the evenings with more time to ponder everything. Those thoughts need to go somewhere, and the Mole Hole will be the spot once more!
Thanks for hanging in if you're still out there. If your new, welcome to my blog, on this my 400th post! I hope you enjoy!
