7 days: Music in the air

Today was recital day. We baked treats, we started a crock-pot dinner, we practiced the piano like crazy, we straightened the house. The recital went well. Some of Jon's students have come and gone over the years, but a couple of them have been around for us to watch grow up. There's a certain joy in that. I realized today that I've been baking for recitals for about seven years now, although it feels a little different now that our own child is among the performers. Calvin seemed to take it all in stride, and he did well, but apparently I got nervous enough for him that I forgot start the video camera on time, and I failed to take any stills while was playing. Thankfully we shot his practice session at home.

After the recital we came back to our house with all four grandparents for that crock-pot dinner and some more piano, this time some good old fashioned Christmas carols. The art of caroling through the neighborhood seems to have perished, but carols around the spinet are another matter, at least in our house. We each have our favorites, be they traditional or more modern, and we have enough piano books around here, and piano players, to have every song covered, so we play and sing a lot and it was fun to share it with our families, too. Calvin did the playing tonight from his newest Christmas book.

Obviously we're music fans around here, and Christmas music is something that we collect—not just for the piano, but recorded music as well. Like with Christmas books, we buy each other a new album, or at least a new song or two, every year. We have sort of eclectic taste, and our collection ranges from big band swing to traditional classical, and some more modern pop collections. Some of our favorite albums from over the years (not in any order):

Lou Rawls's Merry Christmas Baby
Sufjan Stevens's Songs for Christmas
the Singers and Songwriters Christmas album
Stevie Wonder's Someday at Christmas
James Taylor's At Christmas
Ray Charles's Spirit of Christmas
the Goodyear Presents Christmas Favorites album (a holiday collectible from the tire people back in the 90s)
the Kohl's Cares for Kids Ultimate Holiday Collection 2008 (Merry Christmas Baby, by Otis Redding!)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (of course)

And O Holy Night as performed on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip by Trombone Shorty and a group of musicians from New Orleans just getting back on their feet after hurricane Katrina—one of our all-time favorite finds. It's a stunning and emotional arrangement worth hearing, although I'm not sure it's still available or download anywhere.

Plus we're always open to new suggestions if anyone has any...we're still looking for this year's awesome, eclectic album to add to our collection.

8 days: Christmas cards. Finally.

Day one of our low-key, relaxing weekend. We slept in, we ate waffles late, we ate lunch late. There was a lot of piano practicing, what the recital being tomorrow, and some baking, for the same reason. My favorite part of the day was munching popcorn and watching The Nutcracker. Calvin loved it.

Every year, about this time, as I'm putting final touches on a stack of homemade Christmas cards, I find myself swearing that next year I will start the project in July. Or at least September. I think next year I might actually do it. For this year we'll just cross our fingers and hope that everyone gets their cards before the holiday. This year the effort involved die cutting, inking, and stamping, and the cat is now red in a number places. It wasn't on purpose. Really.

9 days: Some Christmas baking and a party

We actually don't make annual Christmas cookies. I've tried them a number of times and you know what? I always make a horrific mess with the frosting. As in seriously messy. So I'm waiting for an undisclosed number of years until I think at least one of us will be neat enough for it to be worth while. But in the meantime we get to enjoy the cookies that our neighbor brings us every year (she included a train cookie just for Calvin this year), and we bake other things ourselves. Today it was gingerbread cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting, which we took to the homeschool group's holiday party in the afternoon. Tomorrow it will be gingerbread pumpkin bars for Calvin's piano recital on Sunday.

We had a nice time at the party, making wreaths and swags and indiscriminate pipe-cleaner objects while munching on a myriad of homemade goodies. At home we turned the music up and wrapped a few more gifts while singing at the top of our lungs. While I made dinner Calvin browsed through our newest human evolution book, and we started our new Christmas book before bed. It was relaxing and peaceful, and, except for the recital, we have an equally peaceful weekend to look forward to. It's like the calm before the (enjoyable) storm.

10 days: The man in red

The annual Santa visit. There's the mall Santa, the downtown Santa, the Santa at the Christmas Village, but today we checked out the museum Santa Claus. Henry Ford Museum does Christmas all through the month of December with decorations, a letter writing station, a model train display, and of course a Santa, so that's where we went today.

The train display was pretty, but small compared to the shows we've been to. The actual trains were lots of fun again, though, and the Oz exhibit was a major winner again. The decorations gave the museum a very traditional feel (my favorite? The Wizard of Oz tree), and Santa had a really pretty set-up, plus some pretty cool belt bling.

11 days: Christmas stories

We collect Christmas books. Every year for St. Nicholas Day we give a book to Calvin for us to share together year after year. We write in them each year, inscribing the opening pages with a message of love and a date. We're only up to six books at this point, but we also have a few favorites from our own childhoods that transport us to those early days of Christmas joy.

2006: The Snow Tree, by Caroline Repchuk

2007: The Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

2008: Amazing Peach, A Christmas Poem, by Maya Angelou

2009: Good King Wenceslas, by John M. Neale and Tim Ladwig

2010: The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg

2011: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by Charles Santore and the full version, too.