Christmas is a time to sing Christmas carols, but how often do we really pay attention to the words? I sing in my church choir and our choir director constantly calls our attention to the words that we are singing so that we can express the emotions and dynamics within that piece.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is one carol that is sung every year. Taken from a poem written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in 1849 and composed by Richard Storrs Willis ten years later, I think you’ll find the words are timeless.

I’ve quoted verses three and four here because these express hope for our troubling and stressful times. Many times we’ll know the first verse of a carol, perhaps by memory, but the other verses seem to get tossed aside.

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Every December I let the hustle and bustle of the season steal my joy. Not this year! I am celebrating Christmas every day with a new idea. This idea is to capture family stories.

We are in the process of losing an entire generation. There are so many rich stories that have been told but never documented. Once that person is gone, the stories will go with them never to be told again.

A huge bonus I received by marrying Robert was gaining my father-in-law, Stuart R. Trottmann, Jr.  Stu, as I affectionately call him, is now 92 years old. Six years ago when we met, Stu had told us lots of stories. Robert told me that none of his stories were written down so I decided to interview Stu and record the stories. Robert came with me.

As with everything Stu puts his mind to in his life, he was prepared to talk. Boy was he prepared!

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Every December I would let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season steal my joy. Not this year! I am celebrating Christmas every day with a new idea. This idea is to take a walk, drive around your neighborhood or take a short trip to view Christmas lights and displays.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, I talk about our adopted yellow lab, Wilson. He is very energetic and loves to go for walks. Fortunately for him, Robert and I love to walk. We have a four mile route that we walk as often as we can around our neighborhood. In the winter months, it gets dark early, so we end up walking Wilson at night. While we don’t enjoy walking in the dark, it makes for a pleasant walk at Christmas time because we get to see all of the Christmas lights. On one particular street the neighbors collaborated to string lights from house to house horizontally across the street. We saw them doing this during the day, so it was fun to see their handy work at night time.

A more dramatic idea is to visit a professionally done display or place.

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Every December I let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season steal my joy. Not this year! I am celebrating Christmas every day with a new idea. This idea is to reconnect with someone.

I am amazed at how easy it is to find someone and reconnect with people through the Internet, especially through a social network like Facebook. I’ve connected with people from jobs twenty years ago and people I have liked and have met along life’s path but lost that connection through various moves and life changes. It’s been really fun.

The holiday season is a time for love and joy. This is the perfect time of year to reconnect because of this positive energy.

The holiday season is also a time for sorrow for many. Our losses tend to hit us the hardest at Christmas when friends and loved ones are missing from our lives due to a death, a shattered relationship or other circumstances.

Many times we may be thinking about someone, but we don’t know what to say. So we do the worst thing possible. We say nothing. Saying nothing makes that person feel alone and forgotten. We add to their grief. Continue reading →