Angels We Have Heard of the Woodland Animals

I'm thinking of Christmas carols a lot tonight. AJ just sang, "Angels we have heard of the woodland animals." Hysterical - I have no idea where that last part came from?? We have been practicing a lot of carols and I suppose some wintry images get mixed in there with the lyrics.

And tomorrow we go to the nursing home to sing carols to the Alzheimer's patients. It is really important for me to be able to go there because it's about the only kind of community service I can do with a toddler (and soon a baby) tagging along. Our playgroup has been going there for two years now and I love how our kids are so comfortable. They are not scared of people who are old or sick or out of it. And these patients are really out of it. So even though it's sometimes a little hard and certainly not what I would call "fun," nursing home visits are important to us. I hope to continue to do this or some other sort of service work as my children grow up.

I think Christmas time is a great time of year for singers. You know a lot of the words, the songs are everywhere and sometimes you can even get people to sing along with you (helloooo husband). One of my favorite memories is from about ten years ago (yikes I am old!). When I was in college I did a lot of community theater, including a few shows with my oldest stepbrother Chip. We were fairly close back then. Although we had to cut off a choreographer in "Pippin" who wanted us to close....gross...

Anyway, once a producer from one of the shows asked Chip and me to join with two of our friends to form a holiday quartet. He pulled together Victorian-type costumes (hoop skirts! bonnets!) and we were hired to do several parties. We just stood in the corner or at the doorway and sang Christmas carols.

I loved it!! The other girl let me sing alto and I could just throw together any harmonies I wanted. We had some sheet music for words but for the most part we just kind of stood together and harmonized and had fun. Perhaps one of the best gigs of my life.

One of the parties was at a newly opened nightclub. We so did not fit in, standing in the corner in our Victorian garb. There were also tap-dancing reindeer and elves and none of them looked quite right either. I don't think anyone could hear us singing but like I said...we had fun! And got paid too. Shouldn't all of life be like that?

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