Twenty years ago tonight. . . .

A young man came to my house to pick me up for Midnight Mass.  It was cold that night.  They were predicting a white Christmas for our area with snow hitting some time over night.

We went to Mass at my church.  Back in those days if you didn't get there early, you didn't get a seat.  So we go to church before 10:45 and I got to listen to our choir sing the usual pre-Mass program of Christmas carols.

Church was decorated the same as it had been for the previous 10 or so years that I had gone there.  I was split between two churches growing up; in the end, my parents returned to the church we had left and I stayed at the new one.  It just felt like home to me.

It was a beautiful Mass.  I cried just like I do every year.  When they sing Silent Night to start Mass I cry.  They sing at Communion, I cry.  (They sing "Oh Come Little Children" in German; years ago my dad helped them with the proper pronunciations in that one.  So there is reason to cry.  . .solid memories there)

After Communion they sing "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."  Funny.  Just typing the title makes me cry.  Goodness gracious.

But the absolute tearfest is at the end of Mass when the choir sings the recessional. . ."Twas the Birthday of a King."  I have searched high and low to find a version of it on youtube that comes anywhere near to my church's choir.  We don't have a big choir.  Just a church with incredible acoustics.  And when they sing it, it really rings out.  And I cry.

When we left Mass that night, all aglow in the peace and quiet that comes with being out in the middle of the night, we looked up and saw snow.  There probably wasn't a half inch of slushy snow on the ground yet when he took me home.  But watching it fall from the sky, in that cold dark and intensely quiet night, it was magical.  A perfectly magical first Christmas with the young man I would later marry.

A magical Christmas, just as it should be every year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'll Never Find Another You

Just remembering today.

Found a Peanut!

As we left from the final performance of the play we "found a peanut" on the floor of the landing in one stairwell.  I couldn't help myself. . .I started singing and made my dad join in with me.  Just one of those crazy moments that had to happen.  My dad taught us that song years ago so getting to break into song on a random night when we literally "found a peanut" was just priceless.

Now for those of you who don't know the song. . .go right here. But I warn you, it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day!

Go get'em girl!

Today is a completely self indulgent post for my girl.  She has a big day today and I just want to wish her all the best of luck!

Go speechify and bring home a ribbon!

And because this was one of Daddy's songs of encouragement years ago. . .

You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet

Sometimes a song just makes your heart stop

At least it does for me. As soon as I hear the first note of some songs it's like my heart stops and I am paralyzed, in a completely good way, waiting for the song to take off. 

Christina Perri's song A Thousand Years is one of those songs.  From the very first note I am transfixed.  I know I cannot turn the song down or off until it is over.  The words are powerful but it's more than that. It is the overall emotion of the song.  Even when I just hum the song I feel the emotion.

Listen to it for yourself. . .see if you you feel the depth of emotion.  I am drawn to it because of the piano.  But I wonder, does this one make you stop and listen?

A Thousand Years

Getting to know you!

Ahhhh, play week!  It's wonderful and awful all at the same time!  It's the end of long nights of rehearsal.  But it's also sad because it's over.

But today we just celebrate the fun of the weekend with one of my favorites from the musical.  :-)

Getting to know you!

I Love How You Love Me. . .

I've always heard this one as a slow love song.  But last night while I was working I came across this version in a playlist of songs from the 1960s. . .and true to my natural form, I listened to it over and over and over.

Thus, it must be worth sharing.  It's a bit raucous at times.  It deviates from the lyrics I find online for the song.  And yet it's just such a happy upbeat song I just can't get enough of it!

I Love How You Love Me