DAY 8 The Great Musical Masterpieces of Christmas

DAY 8 THE GREAT MUSICAL MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTMAS

To me, it isn't Christmas unless I listen to The Nutcracker Suite a few times! To read about this history of this great story, musical score and ballet, click on these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutcracker_and_the_Mouse_King gives a synopsis of the elaborate tale of the Nutcracker aand the Mouse King, which is the original story of The Nutcracker Ballet that Tchaikovsky composed the music for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpwuTiURwOM is a sample from the ballet!

The other great masterpiece...Handel's Messiah !

Here is an excerpt...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS3vpAWW2Zc

In keeping with this particular post..today's song is The Hallelujah Chorus

Day 7 Christmas and Charles Dickens

DAY 7 CHRISTMAS & CHARLES DICKENS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

When you go to this site, you will realize what an impact Charles Dickens had on society in England and in how Christmas is celebrated!

Dickens needed money because his wife was again pregnant and so he began writing the book in October of 1843. It was finished 6 weeks later and finally published on 19 Dcember 1843 and was an instant hit! Please find the time to read this wikipedia selection. It will enlighten you!

There have been many movie versions of A Christmas Carol...pictured here are my 2 favorites.

Today's Song: God Bless Us Everyone by Andrea Bocelli (which is the ending song to Walt Disney's A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey) hear a sample at this site:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Christmas-Andrea-Bocelli/dp/B002L430KK

Charles Dickens also wrote a great essay entitled "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older"..which can be found on this site:

http://www.sheeplaughs.com/scrooge/whatchristmasis.htm

happy reading!

Day 6 ~ Happy St. Nicholas Day

DAY 6

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! Did you put your shoe out last night?

This tradition is honored more in the Midwest and probably the East (of the USA). Not many folks here in California do this. I brought this tradition into the Hulihan houselhold because it was done in our house when I was growing up: You put your shoes by the front door (inside, not outside.) on the evening of dDcember 5th and in the morning you will find little treasures in your shoes...left there by St. Nicholas.

When I was a kid, we would get a couple new pencils, some gum, a candy bar.

I am happy to report that our kids, now married with families of their own, continue the tradition. And Kelsy, the unmarried one (so far) always seems to get her shoe filled, too.

You can go to this site to learn more about St. Nicholas Day. http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=76

Today's Song:

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
What I love about this song is the verse:

"As for me, my little brain, isn't very bright,

choose for me Dear Santa Claus, what you think is right."

To me, it means, sometimes we think we want something, but really it isn't right, so let

someone older and wiser choose it...it is like submitting your will to a higher power.

Day 5 P A R T Y T I M E

Looks like someone has been too busy (?) to post on here DAILY as planned.
OK...
Day 5....I wish to say that it is time to think of having at least one party at your house this season. A real party. A parteeeeee!
Even if you invite just one guest.
So I am going to start planning a party.

I want to tell you about the party we went to on December 5, 2o09.

(The picture above gives an idea of the type of decorations we were greeted with when we went to this party. I will explain the dog at the end of this post.)

It was for the Family History Center staff and it was held at the Goates' gorgeous huge home in Apple Valley. Everyone brought something for the table. I brought a big casserole dish of my stuffing. We had turkey as the main meat but someone brought the most delectable meatballs swimming in a yummy sweet sauce. And there was a raspberry jello dish I kept going back to for more helpings. There were several casseroles, some salads...and the guests were spread out in different rooms. Sharol Goate's house has 2 living rooms and 2 dining rooms and each room was wondrously decorated for Xmas and had a long table with christmas table cloths, and centerpieces.

I wish I had my camera with me to take pictures of all the cute decorations she had throughout the house.

Desserts included: pumpkin pie, magic cookie bars, apple pie, and Lolas famous cheesecake.
The conversation was rich and amusing at our table. The folks at this party....very much world travelers with fascinating stories to tell. After the meal, we gathered around in the biggest living room with the tall tall christmas tree and went around the room with each person telling something about themsleves so we got to know each other better. Some of these folks I had never met before so it was quite interesting. John never met most of them before since he doesn't actually have a shift at the library. I met a lady, La Nett who had 12 children and scads of grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had a very youthful look about her, too!
I met Joyce! Sharol's mom. She was married when she was 15. Her 2 brothers...last name of Rowberry, are successful artists (painters). This lady was recently cured of several cancers by using a unique formula. She looks great! Energetic and sparkly woman! I could go on and on..but basically this post is about parties.
So just have a party! Do it!

By the way, because of this party, I have fallen in love with St. Bernard dogs. The Goates have one (only weighs 140 lbs...they had one years ago that weighed twice that)..named Freckles. I think I would love to have a St. Bernard dog!

Today's Song: We Need A Little Christmas

Day 4 - A Polish Custom from my Past

Day 4...I would like to tell you about oplatek (this l, in Polish, has a diagonal dash through the middle and is pronouncend like a "w"...so this is pronounced Oh-PWAH- tek. (IN POlish the second to the last syllable is always accented.
We did this most Christmases when I was a child in Wisconsin. I went to the Catholic school and we could order the wafers from the nuns who sent away for them. You can still order these online. Just "google" order oplatek.

We did this usually, I think, on Xmas Eve. Before our meal...(and sometimes it was Christmas Day Dinner), my dad would take a fresh piece of this wafer from the package and break a peace off and say something nice and then pass it to another person, who would break off a piece for himself, and pass it along and so forth until everyone at the table had a piece.

See...
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-gifts/Oplatki-Christmas-Wafers--Oplatek/sku/22393

and http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PolandBorderSurnames/2005-10/1130262717
for history of this custom.

Today's song is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." I chose this song because this post is about a Polish tradition which reminded me of my high school days (I grew up in a very Polish community and went to an all girls' Catholic school taught by nuns.)) and one Christmas during an assembly, our prinicipal announced that all of the nuns, our teachers....there must have been 30 nuns at that school...had a gift for us: the gift of a song. They must have been practicing for weeks! It was "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" and they gathered together by the piano in front of the audience of 400 girls all in navy blue jumpers with white blouses...they stood in 3 rows on
graduated risers so you could see everyone's face. They harmonized in part and it was beautiful. The lighting in the gymnasium was magical that afternoon...lights kind of dim...Christmas lights in places. Maybe some red poinsettias here and there.
This was the first time in my life where I was comletely and utterly carried away by the beauty of a song ..the way it was sung by all those nuns. I was transported. It was utterly amazing...that feeling that I had as they sang this.

Day 3 The Blue Time and Christmas

Yesterday, my husband came home from work so in awe about the atmosphere, the colors, the peacefulness of the dusk that day. I missed it! I was at a computer at the Family History Library. After listening to him speak about how unique and special it was, I recalled how I love that time of day...I call it "the blue time". I used to make it a point to go outside every day during this very fleeting time and just take it all in.

The burning sun has set and the dark night has not yet arrived...there is just these few precious moments of perfect blue. On some days the blue time is not very blue, though, for some reason. So last night's dusk was ... well.....it was like this picture....So see if you can jump into this picture and feel what it might be like. Or wait until tonight's blue time and go outside and experience it.

Put it on your schedule:

5:00pm

The Blue Time

Go Outside

Of course, the blue time's time changes a bit every day so you have to be in tune with that.

By the way, the Pat Coil CD called "Peaceful Christmas" is piano music...gorgeous!

Today when I woke up, the first thing that popped into my head was the song "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You". So that is today's song.

Yes, I am blue...blue that we lost Charlotte this year and that we lost Sandy this year.

But that is OK. God's favorite color is blue, you know. Why do I say this? Because the biggest color in the world is blue...the sky!

And Sandy and Charlotte are in aplace where there are even prettier colors and they are waiting for us. Because of Christ, we will all be together again! Now that is the best present of all!

Our Christmas Song Book

The first time Doug and Sheelah came to our home for Christmas, they brought a bunch of these books and ever since, on Christmas Eve, we bring these out and sing many songs from them. Doug and Sheelah have singing voices of professional quality and know how to harmonize, etc. It is quite an experience to sing with them. This book is available from www.sheetmusicplus.com

for $3.50 each plus postage. 80 pages of musical notation and all the verses to the best Christmas carols!

Day 2: About Christmas Books

I have such a collection of Christmas books!
One of our family's favorites is Claude the Dog. Larissa just bought a copy for Shayla to enjoy and I just bought one for Amy to read to her little ones. It is a short and sweet story of a dog who has the true Christmas spirit.

And the Christmas spirit should be in our hearts all year!

That reminds me of one of my top 25 Christmas songs: The Secret of Christmas by Johnny Matthis (one of my favorite soloists).

Christmas Season ~ Day 1

The Concept of Advent

This is a Catholic thing: To anticipate Christmas, you have the season of Advent.
 

This is an Advent Wreath. I remember making one just like this for one of our Girl scout activities.

I love the Christmas Season although I sometimes complain about all the work that needs to be done.
I have decided to post everyday in December on this blog.
I will make note of a special Christmas song (carol) I like in each post.

So for Day 1...the Christmas carol is...O COME O COME EMMANUEL !

This is the song we sang in school (elementary and high school) every day in Advent.
Advent is the 4 week or so period before Christmas Day. November 29, 2009 was the First Sunday of Advent for the Catholics this year.

When we were in school, we always had an Advent Wreath ( a circular wreath of pine boughs that is set on a table with 4 long tapers....3 purple and one pink set equidistant from each other in the wreath)in the classroom. In high school, there was an Advent Wreath on a special table in the foyer of the school. Every morning in the first week of Advent, a candle from the wreath was lit. Then everyone sang O Come O Come Emmanuel and then after the song, the candle was blown out. It was like a morning devotional...to start the day. We did this every day during Advent.

On the week following the second Sunday of Advent, 2 candles are lit every day in the morning devotional. Why the pink candle? That is for the 3rd Sunday of Advent and the week following.

The 3rd Sunday of advent was called

Gaudete Sunday.

Why is it called this?

http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/f/Gaudete_Sunday.htm tells us why:

The Introit for Gaudete Sunday, in both the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo, is taken from Philippians 4:4,5: "Gaudete in Domino semper" ("Rejoice in the Lord always").
Like Lent, Advent is a penitential season, so the priest normally wears purple vestments. But on Gaudete Sunday, having passed the midpoint of Advent, the Church lightens the mood a little, and the priest may wear rose vestments. The change in color provides us with encouragement to continue our spiritual preparation—especially prayer and fasting—for Christmas.
For this same reason, the third candle of the Advent wreath, first lit on Gaudete Sunday, is traditionally rose-colored.
Gaudete Sunday has a counterpart in Lent: Laetare Sunday.

There you have it. Although I am a Latter Day Saint (Mormon) now, I still look fondly on some of the worship services of my former church, the Catholic Church.

On the side of this blog I will put links to the songs I pick each day.