Christmas

December was always a happy month for me. As a child it meant Christmas of course, with all that led up to it, and then there was my birthday a week before, and school vacation and some parties. I always enjoyed the special services at church - the pageants; the old carols and sometimes the Messiah with a good choir. At home we had a big tree and as my sister and I got older we were allowed to decorate it, tho’ I don’t recall my 2 brothers doing so. After I was married and had 4 of my own, the children helped - they went out with their father and cut down a tree and they always hung up their stockings. We usually went to my mother’s for dinner after my father died and then went up to New Hampshire to be with my in-laws for a week of skiing. Our 3 sons relished that and my daughter, the youngest, put up with it. In retrospect, I’d say it was always the music that I loved. I sang in our church choir for 55 years which brought me joy and we put on a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta for about 10 years and I could hardly wait until rehearsals started each winter. We had so much fun.