O Holy Night

It's been a wonderful Christmas Eve.  We awoke this morning with the surprise of only a dusting of snow despite the 2-4" they were predicting.  That made for an uneventful drive over to my folks for family Christmas festivities, but with snow still in the forecast, we took the truck just in case.  That turned out to be a good idea.  While the kids (and adults) enjoyed opening presents, and feasted on yet another wonderful meal prepared by my mom, the snow fell with a vengeance.  When it came time to leave, we found the roads around home covered in about 2" of snow and not yet plowed, and more coming down by the minute.  We took our time and eventually made it to Route 24, which was plowed pretty well and made for a less stressful drive. 

While we may not be so good about going the rest of the year, we have maintained the tradition of going to church on Christmas Eve.  Because our attendance is, lets just say, less than regular, we are never quite sure how the boys will react.  Last year I remember N almost knocking over the advent candle, and L being awoken by a hymn and crying.  This year both boys behavior was very good.  N went and sat up front during the children's message and sat patiently through the whole thing.  I can't say the same for L, but he sat with us in the pew for about half of it before needing some time out in the hall to run around.  All in all, pretty good for both of them.

Another Christmas Eve tradition we have is listening to "O Holy Night" on our circa 1916 Edison Phonograph. I think this may be the first year we have it set up since we moved, so this is really the first year that N is old enough to understand what it is.  Both boys were curious as I fired it up.  When the opera-style soprano started into the song, N's initial response was "Mickey Mouse!"  After a few more minutes, she launched into a particularly high part and N's opinion changed to "that's annoying".  I can't argue that her vocal style isn't exactly my cup of tea either, but I guess the novelty of 94 years of audio progress is lost on a four year old.  Maybe that appreciation will come with time.  For now, I guess we'll stick with MP3's for him. 

Merry Christmas!