Carols and The Tree

As I sat in the auditorium on Sunday afternoon, the lights dimmed to a near-complete darkness. Suddenly, hundreds of tiny glow sticks began to illuminate the room around me. At a signal from the conductor, a young boy began to sing a soprano solo in Latin and soon the children’s choir, perched in the balconies above me, joined in, allowing their voices to descend from both ends of the auditorium. After several moments of this breath-taking wonder, the mature adult voices, coming from behind each of the glow-sticks, began to sing, blending gloriously with the pure and sweet voices of the children. It was an incredibly moving experience. I felt bad for Kevin because he had to participate in it and couldn’t just sit back, like me, and enjoy it! The orchestra also performed a terrific medley of traditional carols and the chorale sang some really fun songs, including White Christmas, I Saw Three Ships, and Betelehemu, a Nigerian song involving Congo drums and hand motions. And, of course, they had to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. All of this really put me in a festive mood – ever since, I’ve had many melodies running through my head.
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And, one of the most momentous occasions of the weekend was getting our tree! It’s HUGE!!!! Both Kevin and I think it’s the largest tree either of us have ever had! It makes 6’3” Kevin look like a midget. I had romantic notions of trekking up to the mountains and cutting down our own tree. This year, things were just too hectic – so we went to Target instead. Every year we forget what a hassle (and mess) it is to get a live tree into a stand and up properly in the house. (It's probably good that we forget.) This year, during the process, Kevin muttered under his breath, “I hate Christmas trees.” Later on, after getting it up, he was ecstatic about it and loudly declared, “I LOVE Christmas trees.” (I knew he’d come around.)

So, anyway, now the house has that fabulous, fresh pine scent. We don’t have any decorations up yet, except for a bazillion tiny little lights, but hopefully we’ll get our act in gear either tonight or tomorrow. Now I’m starting to remember, again, why I really love this time of year.