Joyful

Here are some things that have brought me joy this Christmas season:

• Most of the kidlets were out of the house when we decorated Christmas trees this year.  Although everyone likes helping decorate the tree, it was just a hectic few days, and I ended up needing to really just get it done while they were at school one morning.  My right hand helper, Mr. TOF, was available though, and his excitement was truly contagious.  He loved putting ornaments on the bottom of the tree and chatted away the whole time.  He’d hook an ornament on a branch and look over at me with a big grin and exclaim, “Me happy!  This makes me SOOOOOOOOOOO happy!”  
• Is there anything more precious than little boys making flying sounds for their toys?  I don’t think so.  I love how they can come up with such great flying noises.  This week Baby Jesus has spent a lot of time away from his manger flying around the house like the superhero he is:  The great rescuer, identified by an astute preschooler.  I smiled at every flyby.
• It’s the season of Christmas cards, and they always bring me great joy.  Mail in December has such a great chance of being good mail!  In particular, this week we got a Christmas card from my good friend Rhonda’s family.  The card is beautiful, but every year I wait and wait for the letter her husband writes, because it is always hilarious.  I was in stitches again this year.  He knows how to write with voice.
• Another wonderful Christmas card that came in the mail this week was from my Great Aunt Elda, who is elderly.  In fact, she’s very elderly, and she still writes me a long letter each Christmas by hand, and the letter is a GOOD letter every year.  This year she also sent me a photograph of her, and my grandpa Ewald when they were teenagers.  Elsie is on the picture too, and it’s dated 1938.  It’s such a treasure, one of the best gifts ever.
• On the first Saturday of December our church fills all the Salvation Army bell ringing slots across the whole city.  For years I’ve wanted to participate in this, but there was always a conflict of some sort.  Sometimes YaYa would bell ring with her Sunday School class, but it never seemed to work out for me to go bell ringing.  This year I decided I was just going to make it happen no matter what, and I signed up for a time slot later in the day since it was also the day we went to cut down our Christmas trees.  I thought I might bring all the kids, but it ended up working out that Greg stayed with most of the kids since it was really cold and we barely got home with the trees before I needed to leave to ring bells.  The Banana joined me, however, and I brought my clarinet to play.  It was so much fun.  I think I will be addicted to bell ringing and playing my clarinet for many Christmases into the future!  The Banana loved ringing the bell, and I played cycles of carols on my clarinet.  I was worried that it would be too cold since the temperatures were subzero that day, or that my clarinet would be too disruptive.  Someone at church suggested signing up for a grocery store that had the red kettle between doors in the entry way, so that’s what I did, and it worked perfectly.  The clarinet and my sweet girl ringing the bell really caught people’s attention, and it was just so fun to see them give and express their appreciation for a little imperfect music and a girl with a big heart.  So many people stopped to talk to us with big smiles on their faces.
• I really had a good time singing in the Arrowhead Chorale Christmas concert this year.
• On two separate days this week I took piano students to play at assisted living centers.  It went so well!  The residents loved seeing the kids play.  The kids had a good time playing and they felt so appreciated.  I love that some of my older students have been going to play at assisted living centers for many holiday seasons now, and a couple of them made it a point to get their parents to switch appointments and commitments (without any prompting from me at all)  so that they could be there playing for the residents.  It’s just meaningful.