Saturday Nine: Joy to the World

1. What to you is the most joy­ous aspect of the holidays?

For the past 25 years, I have taken vaca­tion time over the hol­i­days and this year will be no dif­fer­ent. I love being at home, relax­ing, not think­ing about work, and get­ting together with loved ones. I espe­cially love to build a fire, enjoy the lights from the Christ­mas tree, and not feel any pres­sure to get to bed at a cer­tain time or be a par­tic­u­lar place by a cer­tain hour in the morning.

2. Do you get much snow where you live? If yes, do you enjoy win­ter sports like ski­ing or would you rather stay in by the cozy fire?

As a gen­eral rule, Lodi does not get snow, although there have been iso­lated instances of a few flakes falling over our lit­tle vil­lage. In 1968, we got enough snow to scoop up every last flake from our front lawn and build a small snow­man that remained for sev­eral days before melt­ing. But our ver­sion of “White Christ­mas” usu­ally involves plenty of fog — a good rea­son to stay home where we are warm and safe.

3. Have you ever been on a sleigh ride or a car­riage ride? Do you even like horses?

The Lodi equiv­a­lent of a sleigh ride is most often a ride on the back of a flatbed truck, seated on bales of hay while singing Christ­mas car­ols. Our church youth group did that a cou­ple of times when I was in high school. After­ward, we warmed up with hot cocoa and cook­ies back at church.

While in New York City in March 2007, my good friend and I enjoyed a hand­some cab ride through Cen­tral Park.

Our hand­some cab dri­ver and his faith­ful companion.

The view from the cab.

Even though it was late March, there were still a few ice skaters in Cen­tral Park.

Another view from the cab.

My friend Barb, who made the trip to NYC with me.

4. Dur­ing the busy week, what do you do to relax?

Just being at home is relax­ing for me, even if I’m put­ter­ing around the house doing var­i­ous chores like laun­dry. I’m enjoy­ing my new home so much that I just love being here. I’ve always been a home­body at heart, but since I moved into my new home, I am even more inclined to choose stay­ing in rather than going out.

5. Do you get stressed dur­ing the holidays?

Not at all. I learned years ago to keep the hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions low-key, relaxed, and with­out a lot of expec­ta­tions. I am plan­ning to have a Christ­mas Eve smorgasbord-type feast. We will light the fire, open presents, and just enjoy being together. For Christ­mas Day, I am going to cook a nice din­ner. But again, it will be very relaxed and we will eat when we are ready, not at a pre-established time. It will again just be the six of us — Big­Bob will be here, as will Buddy and Sophie. We are just happy to be at home, healthy, and together.

I spent many years as a church musi­cian. On Christ­mas Eve, I used to play four ser­vices, fol­lowed by another on Christ­mas morn­ing. It was just too much, so after a few years of that, I began shar­ing the job of church organ­ist with another woman and it worked out really well because we loved to play dif­fer­ent ser­vices. So she was always happy to play on Christ­mas morn­ing when I wanted to be at home with my kids, and had no desire to play the 11:00 p.m. Can­dle­light Christ­mas Eve ser­vice — my all-time favorite ser­vice of any year.

These days, my Christmas-season musi­cal com­mit­ments are over well before the hol­i­day arrives. For instance, this year, I will be per­form­ing in a cou­ple of con­certs, as well as at a hol­i­day open house. That will be a lot of fun because I am part­ner­ing with a local pianist. We will play flute and piano duets, and each take a turn at some piano solos. I expect it to be a very enjoy­able after­noon. Some­times pro­vid­ing back­ground music is more fun than being center-stage because you can revel in the joy of mak­ing music with­out being in the spotlight.

6. What hol­i­day song could you hap­pily never hear again?

The Elvis Pres­ley record­ing of “Blue Christ­mas.” It is com­pletely annoying.

7. How do you decide on what present you pick for a person?

I base my gift choices on the individual’s per­son­al­ity and tastes. I always ask my boys what they want in order to make sure that they receive gifts they will enjoy. But I try to notice what other peo­ple like and then get them some­thing that is con­sis­tent with the behav­iors I have observed. For instance, I have one friend who is addicted to Star­bucks. She’s def­i­nitely get­ting a gift card that will help her sup­port her habit, along with a nice travel mug which she has been mean­ing to buy for herself.

8. What does this hol­i­day sea­son mean to you and why?

This year, Christ­mas has new mean­ing for me. For the past sev­eral years, I have barely dec­o­rated my home because I have not felt very fes­tive. But I really enjoyed dec­o­rat­ing the new house … I have many dec­o­ra­tions out that I haven’t used in years, includ­ing the Christ­mas tree itself. In 2002, I found a beau­ti­ful, pre-lit tree at Costco. Funny … it didn’t look that large in the store! It is six-and-a-half-feet tall with white lights. When I got it home and we put it in the liv­ing room, it looked huge! So we did not use it again … until yes­ter­day. Here in the new house, I have the per­fect spot for it and it doesn’t over­whelm the room the way it did the liv­ing room in my other house.

Santa wel­comes vis­i­tors to our new home!

Once inside the front door, my mother’s car­ol­ers con­tinue wel­com­ing guests.

We’re going to add the orna­ments this evening.

9. What hol­i­day movies best describe the sea­son for you and why?

I’m still a sucker for “White Christ­mas” star­ring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rose­mary Clooney. I watch it every year. But I also love “The Fam­ily Stone” which was released in 2005 and stars Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nel­son, and Sarah Jes­sica Parker. Both films have the same mes­sage: Christ­mas is about being with those you love, even though they are not per­fect, either as indi­vid­u­als or when brought together. It is also about giv­ing to oth­ers, which we should do each and every day of every year.

Click here to see the list of other par­tic­i­pants and links to their sites where you can read their responses.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Sat­ur­day Nine

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