Christmas Carol

 

My favorite Christmas carol ever...

 

 O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

A Guide to Christmas Decorating Safety

Statistics show that over 83% of household accidents happen in the bathroom. The other 17% occur during Christmas decorating.* Over 25% of emergency room visits during the period of Nov. 12th through Jan. 7th are because of an accident when decorating for Christmas.* 
 Decorating for Christmas is a wonderful pastime, but it is important to have a thorough knowledge of the perils that lurk in order to have a safe decorating experience. The Commission of Christmas Decorating Safety (CCDS) has compiled this manual of rules and regulations to help the ordinary consumer follow safe Christmas decorating procedures.

Section A: Stockings

1. Stockings are not allowed to be hung from a mantel, radiator, bedpost or bookshelf. They must not weigh over 2 pounds 2.5 ounces when filled. The Department will ration exactly 2.5 lumps of coal to each household for each bread-winner to dispose of as they see fit. Each lump of coal weighs exactly 7 ounces.
2. Stockings must not be made from socks, shoes, nightcaps, long johns or any article of clothing that consumers habitually wear. It is dangerous to the public health.
3. There must be a regulation pamphlet by the milk and cookies that will direct Santa Claus to the stockings. He often forgets about them, and the Department will not be held responsible for any more lawsuits regarding this matter.

Section B: Presents

1. The Department has allotted 3 presents per person. Those who have more presents than the allotted amount must donate them to the Persons that Spread the Wealth Association (PSWA), where they will be distributed to those that are less fortunate. 
2. Presents may not be wrapped using tape, ribbon, or scissors. These are serious safety hazards to the white panda bear, and anyone found using them will be prosecuted.
3. No wrapping paper may be used that is colored with snowmen, gingerbread men, reindeer or Santa Claus as these shapes are discriminatory against those racial groups. 

Section C: The Tree

1. All Christmas trees must be over the height of 1.3 feet and under the height of 5.7 feet. This enables the maximum amount of people to help decorate the tree. Any tree smaller than 1.3 feet is a shrub. There is a considerable risk of injury/contagious disease/death from overbalancing when decorating any tree taller than 5.7 feet. Any trees that do not meet the height requirements will be towed away at owner's expense.
2. All ornaments must be made of artificial plastic. Wood, paper, fabrics, glass and metal are not allowed. There are to be no sparkles, glue or artificial substances of any kind attached to them. Such substances can be easily swallowed by small goldfish and are extremely dangerous to their health. Ornaments may not be hung on the top branches or the middle branches. If they are hung in the restricted areas they are an extreme risk for falling on small children's heads. No ornaments are to manufactured in the shapes of snowmen, gingerbread men, reindeer, or Santa Claus, as these shapes are discriminatory against those racial groups.
3. Christmas trees may not have lights. They could be mistaken for alien signals and the Department has issued strict orders against any communication with the outer worlds.
4. Absolutely NO tinsel may be used for decoration on the tree as it is very sharp. One gentlemen was taken to the emergency room last year because a piece had severed his foot. Blood poisoning spread and his entire leg had to be amputated. NO TINSEL!

This manual will be updated every 6 hours to comply with proper regulations.


 *Statistics are fake. Please do not pay any attention to them as they are used merely for promotional purposes. Thank you!

Christmas Card

 

 Ah, the Christmas Card. That special time of year when the entire family gets together to document yet another passing year. It's a time filled with love and peace, hope and gentleness; special family moments created together. There is complete cooperation--from the oldest granny to the smallest baby. No tears, bunny ears, or bruises are ever present, and no voices are raised. Everything is accomplished quickly and everyone looks lovely, leaving a beautiful photograph that will be cherished forever.

Yeah, right!

View of the dog's rear, BB gun "accidentally" fired (although whether it was even supposed to be loaded was in question), demanded bathroom breaks, wardrobe malfunctions, "I'm so cooooold!!", "How come she gets to do that, I want to!" punching (yes it happens, *sigh*), not enough time before the self-timer dings, too much time before the timer dings, blah blah blah blah blah. What's a photographer to do???





Final product--shot 537. Whooosh. :-)

What's up Doc?

WOW it's been a long time! I guess my life lately could be best described by a VeggieTales song: "Busy, busy, dreadfully busy, you've no idea what we have to do! Busy, busy, dreadfully busy, much much too busy for you!" School, orchestra, school, job, school, and did I mention school? Here's a condensed picture of my life in the past few months. :)

 My job!! As an earlier post details, to make money I have been playing downtown in front of Dick's 5&10. The first several times I was extremely nervous, and I still am sometimes, but I have grown to love it. It is so rewarding to see the smiles on people's faces when I play a familiar song, and the pay helps too! :-)

For Suzy's birthday we went as a family to see Tangled, in 3D!! I personally had never seen a movie in 3D before, and it was pretty cool. That aside, I have started a mission to have the whole world go see this movie. It's that great. Now, to uphold my image as a bored-by-everything-that-involves-people-under-the-age-of-12 teenager, I wasn't expecting very much. But it totally defied all my expectations; a super cute movie. I wouldn't mind seeing it again! And, as a plus, it had some really great musical numbers--bonus points!! Seriously, go buy a ticket and see it. :-)

November 30th was my very first orchestra concert ever. It also marked the end of my first semester in the Springfield Youth Symphony. We played lots of well-known pieces: Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, the Polotsvian Dances No. 17, Sleigh Ride, two movements from Beethoven's 5th, and a few "smaller" pieces. Everything went positively swimmingly until the very last movement in the Beethoven, which was the second to last piece on the program. Now in rehearsals I was/am not very good at counting rests, coming in too late usually and having to race to catch up. But during the concert I hadn't missed a single one and was feeling so pleased with myself (uh huh, pride goeth before a fall, surely!). We came to the last page of the last movement-which was super fun to play-everything was getting ready for the big finale, whennnn......wecametotheverylastrestandIplayedone-halfabeattooearly. There. It's out. Although it probably is rather difficult for you to read what I just said, so I'll say it slower. *clears throat* We came to the very last rest right before the Big Note and I played one-half a beat too early. Yep. Major fail. And of course, I played it the way it was supposed to be played: very loud and long, so the end note instead of being one whole note, was a quarter and a whole note. I'm sure I'll laugh about this someday. But, it was a very good learning experience and I will never do it again. End of story. :-)

Above is the only video I could find on Youtube of us; the video quality is rather bad, but the sound is nice. It's an excerpt from Jubilee, conducted by the fantabulous Carla Wooton.

Welll, there ya have it! A lot more has happened in our house, but I'm out of time for today. Guess you'll have to wait with baited breath.....