Fa ra ra ra ra

Been listening to my winter playlists, but I need some new songs.  Here are the favorites so far this year:

It's Christmas Time, The Lovemongers

Veni Veni Emannuel, The Gregg Smith Singers

Go Tell it on the Mountain, NeedtoBreathe

O Come O Come Emmanuel, Chasing Furies

Same Old Lang Syne, Dan Fogelberg

Song for a Winter's Night, Sarah McLachlan

Last Christmas, Savage Garden

The Last Noel, The Lovemongers

2000 Decembers Ago, Joy Williams

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Caedmon's Call

The Light of the Stable, Selah

Noel Nouvelet, Apollo's Fire

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella, Yolanda Kondonassis

I have very distinct tastes in Christmas music.  I tend towards minor keys and solemn chords, more light-in-the-darkness stillness-of-winter than sparkly-glee-club-mistletoe.

I've been meaning to write for years (okay, so I've only had my blog for 1.5.  1.5 is plural...) on just why I love Christmas.  It's not about the presents, I swear.  But I've been swamped.  But I'll get around to it this weekend, perhaps.

Played in our annual Christmas service last weekend.  I have lost whatever musicality I ever possessed.  I play with unexpressive, plodding notes.  Granted, it was easy stuff - quarter notes, simple key signatures.  But 18 years of dust on my technique is hard to shake off in one afternoon.  It's a lovely service, of course, and the theatre was stunning in all its holiday finery, but the real reason I volunteer for this is the same as why I volunteer for the drama productions.  It's fascinating to watch others who are good at what they do.  We get to work with the choir director and theatre director in their element.  To watch them put together a performance from a ragtag group of students.  To see them in the course of their job, which is similar to mine in that it falls under the name "teacher" but yet is so very different in nature to mine.  To see that their travails with students are the same as mine, just a different flavor.  And all the unintended hilarity.  The line of the day doesn't translate to print very well, but another notebook-worthy line was, "Somebody has unplugged my piano to plug in the baby Jesus.  My piano is more important to this production than baby Jesus!"  Which is about as funny as the Pirate in the Pit or the Phantom of the Opera in high heels from productions past.