Christmas Time Is Here...Happiness and Cheer...

Nothing beats the reading of Luke 2 by Linus in Charlie Brown's Christmas. In fact, I think that just about every time I read that particular portion of Luke, it's his voice that I hear in my mind.
Christmas is my favorite time of year. (I hate New Year's, always have, but before then, it's all good.) My arm almost fell off the last two weekends after all the music I ended up playing, but it was a good kind of pain. All those church services on the 11th. Why do I not check my calendar and think things through before I agree to them? Another concert the night of the 11th. We finished off the Minnetonka Symphony Christmas concerts last night, and this concert series included that great "Farewell" Symphony by Haydn. You know. The one that Haydn wrote when the Prince wasn't giving the musicians enough vacay, so in the last movement, he wrote it to allow all the musicians to leave the stage one by one, until all that're left are two lonely violinists. I really enjoy leaving the stage before the piece ends. One does not get to do that very often. OK, I've never done that before. Top notch.

We had some decent snow late last week - in places, enough to cover the tops of my tall boots. It was great. No snow storm would be complete, either, without my neighbor going out to get his mail and wandering around the yard in a t-shirt. Of course he had on his boots, his pants held up by suspenders. and a t-shirt. Throw in a bit of red to go with all that snow and maybe a white beard, and he could be the neighborhood Santa. or not. Only in MN do people wander around in blizzards so unsuitably clothed, where 13 degrees this afternoon felt downright balmy, and we grill year 'round. I love it here.

We have some new neighbors on this block this Christmas. A lot decorate with pretty lights and take part in this lovely tradition. A few of them, however, have odd ideas of decorating. Including this one family who happened to make an addition to their Christmas decor as of last evening. There's a gigantically awful Spongebob Squarepants on their roof. You know those big blow up things that are lit up? Apparently it's supposed to be a big, blow-up Spongebob going down a big, blow-up chimney. Thankfully it's not lit up tonight. The awful part is that it is on the opposite side of the street from our house, so unfortunately we can see it far too easily.

Tonight I did some Christmas shopping - the last of it. Best and worst thing ever? Gift cards. Best because it took me 3 minutes to go in and purchase one at Best Buy, worst because it's not very creative or imaginative (but if it's what they want, it's what they want...I don't like giving gifts like that, but to my dismay, I did it). The guy next to me must've had a similar notion of getting it over with fast. He walked in with me and walked out with me. But without a gift card. He was as pained as me, but in a much different way. Apparently he picked up a box of something close to the door and decided on that. It was very amusing listening to and watching the guy sweat out the purchase. I didn't have the heart to look at what it was; there are just some things I don't want to know, but I only hope it wasn't for his mother.