Merry Christmas

When I was planning this post, I knew the music had to be right, today of all days. I've even bemoaned to my mother my inability to find what I wanted. Because, while I've chosen these songs carefully all season, today's was particularly important. It had a standard to live up to.


See, for the first 27 years of my life, Christmas morning would start with my father getting up first, putting on coffee, turning on the tree, lighting a fire in the fireplace and doing whatever other stuff needed to be done (I'm realizing as I write this, I don't completely know ~ to my knowledge, in 27 years no one ever once performed this routine with him. Not Once.) and then, when everything that needed to be done was done, he would turn on the music. Every year, it was the same music: A Festival of Carols In Brass by the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble.


The music would fill the house, literally trumpeting that Christmas morning had arrived. When we were little, it was permission to come into the main part of the house. When we were older, it was the alarm clock that woke us, urging us out of bed, into the day.


Crow and I would have our stuffed animals with us, because we couldn't leave them alone on Christmas morning (to this day, Bear comes to Christmas with me). My mother wore her beautiful red and black quilted apron-dress thing. It was the only day of the year I ever remember her wearing it and yet I remember her wearing it every single Christmas day. And my dad would be in the living room, usually off to the side, where he could watch but be out of the way, with his coffee, sleepy smile and bright eyes. And Christmas would begin ~ all to the sounds of the same record.

The music changed throughout the day ~ and throughout the years, even. As time went on, Crow brought in new age and popular artists. I (re)introduced Bing and Frankie and Nat into the mix. But the wake up, it's Christmas! call was always the same, always just right, always the Philadelphia Brass.


So today's music had to be just right. And it is.


Merry Christmas to all who happen by here today. You are loved. Blessed be.