3 posts tagged “christmas”

Just things.  Having them.  I try to not be materialistic, and I succeed only by not measuring myself by my possessions. 

As far as I can figure, this materialism comes from two places.  Well, actually one place and then the "things" come two different ways.

I like to learn new things.  There, I said it.  If I hear too much about someone's adventures with something that I have no knowledge of, it's only so long before I can set off to explore on my own.  It's how I entertain myself.

Thus, I acquire the aforementioned "things" through two routes:

1. The "thing" is the new skill/talent/etc: such as a musical instrument or a gaming system.
2. The new skill/talent/etc requires certain tools to be successful.  Like cooking, golfing, etc.

The buck stops there.  My closet has hardly any clothes hanging in it.  We just bought a bigger TV, used, and that was mostly my husband's interest.  I don't seek out new decor for the house or new dishes for the kitchen.

But I was sitting here this morning feeling like a spoiled brat after having decided that I would buy a Wii Fit with my Christmas money after getting both the piano bench and the two amazing kitchen knives that I asked for this Christmas.  Not to mention that, between the husband and I, we acquired Rock Band 2, Mario Kart and Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii over the holidays.  Okay, so I am kind of spoiled...

We survived the drive back and forth to Illinois after all.  The weather prediction was a little trumped up, as it turns out, and on the 23rd we were able to drive all the way to St. Louis before aborting our mission.  On a 12-hour trip, that was 10 hours under our belt, leaving a meager 2 hours to drive on Christmas Eve.  I think I gave my mom a few more gray hairs just having made the attempt to drive in a winter storm. 

Christmas treated us well.  I came back to Texas with a piano bench (no more playing on my husband's drum throne... yesssssss) and Rock Band 2 in my posession.  Andy acquired a copy of Mario Kart, which he's been getting a lot of time with since I can't seem to let the piano out of my reach.

My (almost) 3-year-old nephew now finds it unacceptable to speak in anything other than complete, proper sentences.  So instead of stock phrases we got:

"Would you like to play with me, Aunt Debbie?"
"Aunt Debbie, where is Uncle Andy?"
"I would like to open more presents."
"Stop chasing me, please."

And so on and so forth.  In fact, when we would ask him if he would like to do something, instead of saying "Yes," he'd say, "I can."  What did I say?  Complete sentences, always.  It pretty much made us want to laugh in delight the entire time we spoke with him, but eventually he started to wonder why we were always laughing.  So we grown-ups had to learn to compose ourselves.

Now we're back to the grind.  Four days of work this week (they graciously granted us a day for New Year's), and the in-laws roll into town on Jan 1.  So I suppose I should enjoy the peace and quiet that is the week between Christmas and New Years in the cube farm before the weekend brings chaos again!

We performed an amazing arrangement of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" in church this morning.  [My husband and I play guitar and sing, respectively, in the praise band at contemporary service.]  Our pastor had the band perform it in the middle of his sermon, preaching on the fourth Sunday of Advent: Peace.  In a time when achieving peace on Earth seems about as likely as making the sun shine at midnight, this phrase isn't uttered very much anymore.  When it is spoken aloud, there's rarely any underlying sentiment.  Just words.

I'm familiar with the song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," but I wasn't familiar with its origins.  It's based on a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the darkest part of his life.  He'd lost his wife to a fire and his son was recently injured in the [Civil] war.  When I heard this new arrangement, by Casting Crowns, today, I realized: this is a sad song.  I guess I never really thought about it before.  I just assumed all Christmas songs were joy and celebration.  I thought the words in this new arrangement had been changed to modernize it, but - no - these are the original song's lyrics. 

Peace, now, is no harder to come by than it was 100 or 1000 years ago, but for it to be attainable ever, we have to start somewhere.

Here's the new song, and lyrics:

I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day

Casting Crowns

1 comment

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on earth good will to men

And the bells are ringing
Like a choir they're singing
In my heart I hear them
Peace on earth, good will to men

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

But the bells are ringing
Like a choir singing
Does anybody hear them?
Peace on earth, good will to men

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men

Then ringing singing on its way

The world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men

And the bells they're ringing
Like a choir they're singing
And with our hearts we'll hear them
Peace on earth, good will to men

Do you hear the bells they're ringing?
The life the angels singing
Open up your heart and hear them
Peace on earth, good will to men

Peace on earth, Peace on earth
Peace on earth, Good will to men