Caroling Indoors

On Tuesday at noon I was in tears, trying to wrap up Christmas presents to mail and fit them into oversize boxes for my husband to take to the post office.  It’s not that I don’t like giving people presents.  That’s hardly the case at all.  I’m happy to give people presents (although I really don’t like getting presents at all) It’s the organizational aspect of affair that sends me under.  It’s the need to have everything done at once before Christmas so that they can all get mailed at the same time that drives me berserk.  Add in a screaming baby and I really did not do well.  I am a procrastinator when it comes to holidays, and its really not working out well for me this year.  I was depleted.  And more scroogy than ever.  I was driving my husband crazy.

He knew that looking at the accumulating pile of Christmas presents that people had been mailing to us was giving me anxiety too, so later in the day he went down stairs and moved the whole enormous pile of presents into the sauna where I didn’t have to see them or walk around them any more!  What a kind, understanding man!  I  went down to do yet another load of laundry, and all of the sudden, with all those presents gone, I could just take a deep breath and relax.

My husband has a virus and it made him loose his voice.  He never looses his voice.  The virus is really terrible, and seems to have attacked only the biggest people of our household, for which I am grateful.  I got it first, and a half day later Ya Ya and Dr. Peds came down with it.  There was no stuffy nose, not much cough, and no throwing up involved, but I swear the virus seeped into all my muscles and I’m not sure what it did, but I was horribly achy, feverish, dizzy and miserable, with a terrible sore throat and swollen throat glands (whatever those things are).  However, by the Grace of God I did not protract laryngitis!  I can hardly believe it because I ALWAYS get laryngitis, and I really consider it a miracle that I haven’t lost my voice.  Dr. Peds never looses his voice.  I have a big weekend of choir concerts coming up and I really was not excited about the probability of loosing my voice.  And I didn’t!

I was especially excited to still have a voice to go Christmas caroling with at one of the Assisted Living/Memory Care/Rehab places with some families from our church last night.  It was actually at one of the places that I teach music class, so I was really excited to go and see my grandma and grandpa friends there and bring the baby and kidlets along.  I LOVE Christmas caroling at nursing homes.  There is really nothing better, as far as I am concerned.  The people there are so happy to see kids.  The kids are so full of energy and singing, and it is incredibly joyful.  We caroled for more than an hour last night, in lots of corners of the building that I hadn’t gotten to be in previously.  There was a smile glued to my face the entire time.  It was so fun.  I was so happy to not be sick and to have a singing voice so that I could go.

Best of all, my kids were GREAT!  Dr. Peds had to stay home, and the kids did not go crazy for me.  They sang nicely.  They did a tremendously super job of handing out Christmas crafts to everyone, and they did it joyfully, without any complaining, whining or difficulties.  I was so proud!  On the way home they couldn’t stop talking about how fun it was and which songs they liked singing and which grandmas and grandpas they liked visiting the best, and how some of those grandmas were just so incredibly happy to see us.  And I was so, so excited.  They are getting it!  They are understanding that true Christmas happiness really comes from making other people happy.

At the end of the day yesterday I felt like I was just brimming with peace, love and joy, from the bottom of my toes.

I don’t have any pictures of the caroling, because at the last minute my husband saw that I was taking the camera and gently snatched it back from me, reminding me nicely that I was already in charge of three kids, one baby, a pile of music, a bag of crafts (which I did delegate to a different mom) and the task of leading the singing.  How would I manage to actually take a picture?  And he was right.  But I really did WANT a picture of some of those grandmas and grandpas and their joyful faces.