When I last wrote it was Christmas Eve Day and we were preparing for our celebration. Now it’s New Years Eve Day and preparations for another celebration are underway. Our Christmas Eve went just as we planned. We read Luke, sang carols, played a gift game, ate cookies and gingerbread, and drank eggnog. The excitement level was pretty high, but we managed to have the children (at least the young ones) in bed at a decent time. I love the quiet that settles on the house on Christmas Eve after everyone has gone to bed. It was snowing when we went to bed.
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| Christmas Eve. |
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| Christmas Eve. |
On Christmas morning we awoke to more snow that continued off and on all day. We had our white Christmas. The snow added to the excitement, which was at maximum level all day. No one was up extra early on Christmas morning, which was good. We’ve never been the sort that gets up before dawn to unwrap gifts. We kept everyone upstairs until it was time. Then we took our traditional “Waiting on the stairs” photo. After that, things got crazy. We had quite a few gifts to open. Hazel and June were so excited for every gift – theirs and everyone else’s. It took a while to get all the unwrapping, the oohing, the aahing, and the thanking done. Then we had breakfast and everyone settled down a bit to play with new toys and games. That’s how things stayed until dinnertime. Our young missionaries, Elder Clemens and Elder Smith, were given permission to come to our house (we technically live outside the mission boundaries by nine miles) and they arrived at noon and joined in the game playing. They also Skyped with their families while they were here.
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| Christmas morning. |
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| Waiting on the stairs. |
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| Ready to open gifts. |
Dinner began at 3:00 and it was delicious – the traditional ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, and fruit salad. At 4:30 Josiah Skyped with us. It was so good to talk to him and see his happy face. The rest of the day was full of games and goodies.
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| Skyping with Josiah. |
The day after Christmas was a hard day for me. It usually is. The whole house was suffering from the day-after-doldrums. The excitement was gone, but the mess remained. Making it even harder, we had to say good-bye to the Thayns and to Daniel. The Thayns went home to Pittsburgh, which was sad, but we will see them again this week which is happy. Daniel left for Utah to work for his cousin for a while. I don’t know when he’ll be home again, not too long I hope. After they all left, the house settled into a real slump. Stacey and Hannah were at work, so that left Miriam and me to do the undecorating. Taking down decorations is a sad task with happy results. It’s sad packing up the garland and Nativities and taking the beautiful tree down, putting all the ornaments away, and dragging the poor tree out to the fire pit. I dislike doing it. But I love putting the house in order again. It looks so tidy and uncluttered now, but it’s a sad sort of tidy. The Christmas we anticipated so much is over, but the house is clean and ready for the New Year.
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| Good-bye to the Thayns and Daniel. |
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| They depart. |
The weather was bitterly cold all week. We had sub-zero nights and single digit days. The high temperature today is 3°. With the help of the wood stove, the gas furnace, several electric heaters, fleece-lined clothing, and wooly socks, we are managing to stay warm. We also got more snow during the week. Sometimes it was heavy. At one point on Saturday, we couldn’t see anything out the windows because the snow was blowing so much. We have about six inches on the ground now.
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| Out the window on Saturday. |
I have my own tradition for the days between Christmas and New Years to help relieve the doldrums – I like to fill the house with music. On Tuesday, the day we took the decorations down, we listened to Ella Fitzgerald all day while we worked. On Wednesday I was home by myself and I spent the day listening to all nine Beethoven symphonies. On Thursday I listened to all my favorite violin concertos – five by Mozart, three by Bach, two by Bruch, and one each by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Sibelius. It was glorious. Friday was a day for piano concertos – the later ones by Mozart (Nos. 19-27) and Beethoven (Nos. 3-5), the two exquisite concertos by Chopin, and Rachmaninov’s beautiful two. Saturday it was time to crank up the Strauss waltzes and polkas – our traditional New Years music. I’ve long dreamed of being in Vienna on New Years to attend the concert at the Musikverein. That will happen someday, I hope.
On Thursday and Friday, Miriam and I undertook building the rest of the shelves in the big room upstairs. Daniel did most of the work on the first shelves and we missed him sorely. Miriam and I quickly realized that we are not good carpenters. We had some trouble with accurate measurements, but it all worked out in the end – sort of. Just don’t look too closely in some places. There are a few gaps and mismatched joints.
On Thursday and Friday, Miriam and I undertook building the rest of the shelves in the big room upstairs. Daniel did most of the work on the first shelves and we missed him sorely. Miriam and I quickly realized that we are not good carpenters. We had some trouble with accurate measurements, but it all worked out in the end – sort of. Just don’t look too closely in some places. There are a few gaps and mismatched joints.
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| The shelves Miriam and I built. |
So here we are at the threshold of a new year. I taught my last Sunday School lesson of the year today. It was on Zion, a doctrine I especially love and a perfect way to conclude this year. We’re done with Church history and moving on to the Old Testament. I love teaching the Old Testament.
I’m sure there will be surprises and changes in the coming year, there always are. I hope that none of them will be sad or tragic. I will turn 60 years old in February - a fact I just can’t wrap my head around yet. My mother’s birthday was on Saturday she turned 89, which also seems impossible. I have plans for the new year swirling around in my head. My garden plans are different this year. There is a chance we might finally take that trip to Italy in 2018 – if the Rome temple is finished during the year. And who knows, there might be new grandchildren, or maybe a wedding or two – although there aren’t any in the works at this point. My parents will see the birth of at least five more great-grandchildren in 2018, bringing the total to 30 (which means 30 great nieces and nephews for me).
Tonight we will have our traditional New Years Eve celebration. This being the Sabbath, we won’t be too lively – not that we ever are anyway. There’s just the four of us this time and our celebration is always pretty subdued. We’ll eat some of our traditional goodies – pot stickers and egg rolls, little wieners in barbeque sauce, a cheese ball and crackers, seven-layer dip and chips, and sherbet punch. We’ll play some games. Maybe we’ll watch a movie. We’ll most likely be in bed before midnight. I like to greet the new year in bed sound asleep.
Here is my favorite New Years poem (and with music by Crawford Gates, a favorite hymn of mine too that Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and I sang in church today).
In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Happy New Year!
I’m sure there will be surprises and changes in the coming year, there always are. I hope that none of them will be sad or tragic. I will turn 60 years old in February - a fact I just can’t wrap my head around yet. My mother’s birthday was on Saturday she turned 89, which also seems impossible. I have plans for the new year swirling around in my head. My garden plans are different this year. There is a chance we might finally take that trip to Italy in 2018 – if the Rome temple is finished during the year. And who knows, there might be new grandchildren, or maybe a wedding or two – although there aren’t any in the works at this point. My parents will see the birth of at least five more great-grandchildren in 2018, bringing the total to 30 (which means 30 great nieces and nephews for me).
Tonight we will have our traditional New Years Eve celebration. This being the Sabbath, we won’t be too lively – not that we ever are anyway. There’s just the four of us this time and our celebration is always pretty subdued. We’ll eat some of our traditional goodies – pot stickers and egg rolls, little wieners in barbeque sauce, a cheese ball and crackers, seven-layer dip and chips, and sherbet punch. We’ll play some games. Maybe we’ll watch a movie. We’ll most likely be in bed before midnight. I like to greet the new year in bed sound asleep.
Here is my favorite New Years poem (and with music by Crawford Gates, a favorite hymn of mine too that Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and I sang in church today).
In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Happy New Year!
