O Holy Night

With Ian safely ensconced at the grandparents, a pumpkin glazed doughnut and peppermint mocha from Dunkin's Donuts in front of me, and Ball jars soaking in a hot soapy bath in preparation for this morning's Christmas gift craft (no, you can't know what it is. it's for presents, so I'll post it after Christmas...) I have a moment to revel in B98.5's continuous rotation of Christmas music. Oh, and wait for the plumber to come dig up our backyard, cut into our sewer line, and snake a video camera down the line to see what could possibly be causing NONE of our water to drain. (Yes, that will be a separate post too. Needless to say it's been slightly less holly and jolly around here the past few days. Name that scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation regarding sewage problems and you'll earn my respect forever!)

Anyway, normally I think that listening to Christmas music on the radio gets a little old if it's done in excess prior to the week of. This year, though...a different story. I've been rotating back and forth between 98.5 and 104.7 pretty constantly. Partly because Ian seems to have a true and deep affinity for the Christmas oldies...when Bing comes on with a little Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, those chunky little legs start kicking and that sweet little head starts bobbin'. It can turn his frown upside down in NO TIME. Thank you, Bing.

Anyway, this is more about my favorite Christmas song.

O Holy Night. Always has been, and probably always will be. It just encompasses Christmas for me. The reason we celebrate. My favorite line...

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining. Till he appeared, and the soul felt it's worth.

How can your breath not catch a little there? And your eyes well up at the undeserved gift? In this world of sin...there is Hope.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.
For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn.

Oh, what the heck. Here's the whole thing.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

So now, dear readers, my question for you is...what's your favorite version? I'm torn between Martina McBride, Celine Dion, and Nat King Cole.

Celine

Nat King Cole

Martina

Let's have a vote! Feel free to include other versions as well...the possibilities are endless, really. Josh Groban, Sufjan Stevens, the Carpenters.

My personal favorite right now...I really, really love Martina. Sing it, girlfriend!

Who do you love? And what's YOUR favorite Christmas song?

Pondering...

I'd like to say he's having some Deep Thoughts here.


Nope. Just watching "La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world...". That's my boy.

Christmas at Christ Church

If you don't already have plans for this Sunday evening and you're in the Atlanta area, I would like to invite you to Christ Church's annual Christmas program.

It is the perfect, and I mean perfect, way to celebrate this season. We're going to the 7:30 service. We'd love to see you there!

This Sunday, December 13, at 5:00 and 7:30 pm

Presented by the ChristChurch Music and Arts Ministry
with the Genema Gallery

Featuring adult choir, children's choirs, ChristChurch instrumentalists, soloists, ensemble, dance, drama, and guests from area symphony orchestras

Childcare provided for ages 0-4
The 5:00 program will be especially geared toward families

Spanish translation will be available during each program

The art in the gallery is inspired by our 2009 theme "Revealed" and features artists Kevin McGannon, Suzy Schultz and Daniel Willis


ChristChurch Sanctuary | 81 Peachtree Park Drive NE | Atlanta, GA 30309

P-Dub Comes To Town!

Ree, Allison, Vicki, Shanna, and moi

Something big happened last night here in the A-T-L.

Something really, really big.

Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman, showed up with her Sharpie.

And Ree (don't you just love how we're on a first name basis here?) proceeded to sign about a gazillion copies of her cookbook for gazillions of her adoring fans.

Of course, I had to be there. Or I would be square. 'Nuff said.

Ok, so I knew it was going to be sheer insanity at Borders. Early yesterday morning I stumbled through accounts of her book signing in Houston dragging on until the wee hours of the morning, which put the fear into me. I called Borders and got the D-L...whenever they have a *Big Name Author* come into town, they handle the signings by using a wristband system. The earlier you show up to get a wristband, the earlier you can hop in line to get your book signed.

You may be asking why I would go wait in line to meet an author and get a cookbook signed. Well, I'll tell you.

1. I've been reading Ree's blog for about 2 years now, and I find her writing to be quite entertaining. It's not often that I'll laugh out loud at something I read, but she manages to invoke that reaction time and time again.

2. Her recipes are wonderful. Simple, no frills, and delicious. It's the kind of cooking I grew up with and should have learned how to do when I had the chance. Now I'm really getting into cooking and baking and I want to get better. I WILL learn to make good biscuits. I will.

3. Her photography is breathtaking. Just go and see.

4. She homeschools her 4 kids. As a future homeschooling mom, I find it very refreshing and encouraging to see that it can be done...and done well.

The four of us who decided to embark on this crazy adventure...Allison, Shanna, Vicki, and myself...all ended up with around the same entry time. We showed up at Borders at around 6pm and set up camp in the children's section.

Passing the time with coffee, knitting, and cookbook reading.

Ethan passed the time by practicing being as cute as possible.

Let me tell you, it was pure and unadulterated craziness up in there. Craziness in a good way, I mean. Just a kind of aura of nervous excitement amongst the crowd...we were about to meet Ree, after all!

The natives are restless...

Which brings me to my low point of the evening. I really wanted to bring Ree a little token of my appreciation for all the laughter and good food she's brought me over the years. It had to be something original...something very "Georgia"...something she could enjoy right then and there. And then I had it!

A Chick-Fil-A sweet tea. Let's all pause a moment and let the angelic chorus sing.

Sweet tea is, after all, as Southern as you get. And Chick-Fil-A...well, there are no words for that kind of awesomeness. Ree, if you ever read this, know that I sure do hope you had yourself a chicken sandwich with extra pickles while you were here. I really, really wanted to bring you a sweet tea, but alas we ran out of time.

Anyway, we did come bearing some gifts. Shanna brought an authentic Marlboro Man coffee mug that she discovered in a yard sale pile (we're pretty sure it was from waaaay back when Marlboro ran that promotion where you could collect cigarette box tops and trade them in for things like duffel bags, sleeping bags, etc...all stamped with Big Money Tobacco advertising...hey, that thing might be worth something!) Allison brought her favorite pumpkin bread recipe and of course, this little cutie pa-tootie.


We eventually wound around to Ree and had our moment. She was just as sweet and gracious as could be...more soft-spoken in real life than how her writing comes across on her blog. She signed our stack of books and ooohed and aaahed over Ethan. We then got to meet her BFF Hyacinth and her sister Betsy, both of whom were super duper friendly. They made you feel like you were the first fan they'd met, instead of the gazillionth.

Unfortunately, I also didn't get a chance to tell Ree how much her recent blog post about their dog Charlie made me realize that we truly may be kindred spirits. In it she waxes poetic about that lovely Basset Hound, describing how his paws are magical. Chubby. And Frito-scented. People, we have said FOR YEARS that our dogs have Frito/Dorito paws. I thought we were just generally insane dog-lovers, until I read that. YES! Finally, someone else who understands that dogs paws smell like corn chips. Smell them. You'll see.

Anyway, it was a great evening spent hanging out with good friends. P-Dub, thanks for the memories! And the T-shirt! And your Sharpie scrawl!

A Letter

Following up on our desire to become more educated about our country's history, Paul and I are watching the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War. We watched his film on WWII first, The War. His films are simply excellent. Burns manages to weave history into personal stories in a way that's really unforgettable. I highly recommend checking into his documentaries...we even purchased The War, thinking that at some point down the road it would be helpful in homeschooling.

Anyway, we were finishing up disc 1 of The Civil War a couple of weeks ago, and I was absolutely stopped in my tracks by the beautiful letter he included at the end of the film. From a Union soldier to his wife Sarah, it really seems to capture the love that they shared, as well as the agonizing cost of war.

With the announcement this week of additional troops to be sent to Afghanistan, I have been thinking a lot about this letter and how, even though it was written decades ago, it so clearly illustrates the personal sacrifice of war in a way that makes what is happening today more real, at least for me.

Thank You, Mr. I Can't Remember Your Name

Sometimes memories will come back to me at the oddest times. Usually, the most random of these will strike me at one of two places...the gym or the shower. I have no idea why, except that I'm usually pretty brainless at those times and that's why there's room in my brain for the most unforgettable things to pop up to the front of the line.

Take this morning, for example. I was at the gym...on the home stretch...mindlessly crunching away at my abs, when a song comes on my iPod. It's kind of a ridiculous song to have on your workout playlist, but I have a lot of songs on there that most people probably wouldn't consider fit for running to. Anyway, the song I'm talking about is California Stars, by Billy Bragg and Wilco.

I think I've blogged before about how much I love that album they collaborated on, Mermaid Avenue...a compilation of covers for Woody Guthrie lyrics.

But I didn't tell the story of how I came to love it so.

My last year at Berry before I transferred to nursing school I was an RA. This could take another whole post to describe...

...the half-naked boys I had to kick off the hall after curfew
...how I once wrote someone up for having a swimming frog. (you could have fish, but not frogs. paul still feels bad for that girl, but I don't. a frog is a frog is a frog. i was just following the rules.)
...meeting most of the extras for Remember the Titans when they were filming on campus, as they used our hall as a holding area while they were waiting to shoot.

...but I digress. This particular memory was of Christmas that year, when my freshman girl's hall did a Secret Brother/Sister thing with one of the freshman guy's halls. We had a big party where we "revealed" ourselves to one another with a final gift.

Being the RA, I certainly didn't have to participate, but I did.

Turns out that my Secret Brother was a freshman from Nashville...and I can't for the life of me remember his name...but I do remember he had glasses and curly brown hair and would probably now be considered cute and eclectic but at the time I had zero interest because after all, he was a freshman and I was a junior. Anyway, one of his gifts to me was a mix CD. Now, I should have seen it coming...guys just don't make mix CD's for girls (or do they?) but I was naive and very inexperienced in the ways of wooing. It never amounted to anything more than an evening spent talking about where we came from and where we were going...most of which I also can't remember (except that he was pre-law and Catholic...in other words we quickly figured out we didn't have much in common...) but what I DO remember, and still love, is that mix CD. Diverse and folksy, lyrics of love lost and love found...it was just good. I still listen to it. And that's how I first heard songs off of Mermaid Avenue, including this one...a love song to end all love songs.

So thank you, Mr.Mix CD, for broadening my listening horizons and giving me some good music to listen to through the years.

Christmas?

One special elf picks out the Christmas tree.

I'm ready. Bring it. November flew by, and while I'm usually a crazy mess at this time of year...what with the shopping, the decorating, the baking, the party throwing...this year I feel calm, cool, and somewhat collected. I want to enjoy this season. Not stress over the small things, but reflect on why we celebrate...and for whom.

That being said, here's a snapshot of last month...

Ian has begun to learn his ABC's. Never-you-mind that we usually lose him after B...he's definitely giving it his all. My personal favorite letter that he says is L. He sounds like a true Southerner when he lets loose with that one.

Pappou came for a few days on his way back home to CA from Greece. Ian enjoyed boundless love, affection, attention, trips to the park, and a cool new Greek music video (along with many other gifts...thank you!)

With Kristin's b-day on the 29th, the 3 of us have now all made the leap out of our 20's into the 30's. I hear it only gets better...

Like I said. I'm ready.