The End of 2012!!

Our Christmas this year was a little different than all the other Christmas' we've had since the kids were born. Our tradition of attending the Christmas Eve candlelight service remained the same. It has been one of my favorite things to do at Christmas since I was young. I love the way the church looks bathed in candlelight while everyone is singing. When I was young and in the choir at church, I used to love when all three choirs sang "Do You Hear What I Hear" together. I loved the way it sounded when everyone sang the last verse together. We go to a different church now and instead of choirs singing, the whole church congregation sings "Joy to the World." The service always puts me in the mood for the holiday. Haley played "O Holy Night" for the service this year. She sounded wonderful...such a lovely song.

Christmas Day was very low-key and relaxing. We got up when we woke up...I love that the kids are a little older and don't wake at dawn, though the dog did wake me at 6:30am. We got dressed, ate breakfast, then opened our presents. Then we spent the day enjoying each other. Some of the favorite gifts under the tree this year....

Newt's biggest gift was not under the tree but outside. He got repairs made to our old Honda which he has inherited. The car has sat for a few years except for the boys driving it around our driveways now and then so it needed a good going over. Plus we paid his car insurance.

Dylan was all clothing this year. Except I did find him a How to Build an Acoustic Guitar book and I think he spent most of the day looking at guitar-making kits on the internet.

Haley got a sewing machine for Christmas. Haley is "little miss crafty" so she cried when she opened it. She spent most of the day with it in the basement on the craft table, going through the kid's sewing book she got, and by the end of the day had sewn herself a little purse.

I brined a turkey and made Martha Stewart's sausage and cornbread stuffing recipe (delicious!!). We watched a movie together and went to bed early.

The day after Christmas is St. Steven's Day for the Irish in our lives. Every December 26th we attend a Wren Party in celebration. The story is that St. Stephen was hiding in a bush from the invaders and a little wren sang giving away his position so he was martyred. So, in Ireland, the local boys would kill a wren, make hats of straw, and go around singing at doorways asking for a bit of money to bury the dead wren. It was their version of trick or treat.

Our wren party does not involve injuring a small bird but people do make silly hats. There is music, story telling, dancing, treats for the kids, and a hat parade. It is a lot of fun!

Thursday, we got a call from John Whelan saying he'd be in NJ leading a session and could Haley come out and play. I don't think John realizes how long NJ actually is or that we live in the very bottom of it because the session was almost two hours away. We went anyway. It was at a cute little pub full of people. We met a few new musicians and saw a few we've met before.

Haley had a blast playing with John and she got his new CD for a Christmas present. She is now busy learning all the tunes on the CD...original compositions. Haley is joining John for a huge accordion festival in Quebec at the end of this coming August.

OK...I am signing out for 2012. We have an exciting 2013 to look forward to...some of it planned already and most of it we're taking as it comes.