Music! Music! The Gift of Christmas Music!

by

Howdy!  Howdy!

Since it is the season of giving, I’ll be giving away two e-books of the new release of the 25th year anniversary edition of WAR CLOUD’S PASSION.  Just leave a comment to enter into the drawing.

Because one of my favorite memories of the Christmas season is story telling, I thought I’d tell you a recent Christmas story.

And so here we go — a Christmas story:

About 10 years ago, my daughter had asked me if my husband and I might consider relocating to the East so we could be closer.  She specifically asked if I might help her by becoming a nanny for her daughter.  My granddaughter was then two years old and my daughter was pregnant with her son…my grandson.  Of course, my husband and I decided this is what we should do.  So in 2013, I came to the East to help my daughter and to become my granddaughter’s “nanny.”  (My husband came a little later, in 2014.)

Anyway, a year went by and I loved being with my granddaughter day in and day out — and we went to the local toy story a lot.  At least once a week.  It was a beautiful store and friendly and always had lots of new toys.  The 2013 Christmas season came and my grandson was born only a few months previous to Christmas and so, with my daughter being home, recovering from giving birth, I was spending even more time with my granddaughter.

One day we were in a toy store and I saw a book of karaoke sing along Christmas songs, meant to be sung in the car.  It contained a CD disk and at least three different song books, as well a book full of information about the various songs and the words.

I couldn’t believe my luck.  I bought two of them and I’m glad I did.

We sang and we sang and I think my granddaughter’s favorite song was Jingle Bells (of course).  My husband was yet to join us in the east and so I was with my granddaughter a lot and we sang and sang and sang as we drove to various places (parks and museums, etc.)

A year went by and my grandson was now one by the next Christmas and my granddaughter was four.  She was in school, but the school was a 45 minute drive away and my grandson did NOT like car rides…at all.

Well, I discovered that one particular Christmas song from this sing along CD would sooth his utter dislike of car rides.  Can you guess what the song was?  It is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, and although it is usually sung at Christmas, it was actually written to be sung to celebrate Easter.

Do you know what it is?

It is The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

This beautiful music kept my grandson from whatever it was that caused him to dislike car rides so much.  He would listen for the entire car ride, which was really something considering he was only a year old.

Gosh, we must have played the song all the way over to where my granddaughter was going to school and all the way back home again.  My granddaughter and I soon memorized the words and sang and sang and sang it.

Well, once again, time has gone by and with all the activities both the grandchildren are in nowadays, we seem to be in the car again…a lot.

So it was that only two or three nights ago, as we were driving home, we had on the same karaoke CD and Handel’s Messiah was playing.  We were all singing along loud and strong.  My daughter knows the harmony and the rest of us sang the “melody,” which often changes here and there as I’m sure y’all know.  It was one of those moments for me — one of those pleasant times when “all was right with the world.”  Even though it was only a brief moment when time seemed to stop temporarily, it was beautiful.

And so in honor of this extraordinarily beautiful piece of music, I thought I’d include a sing along.  So I hope y’all will have a wonderful time enjoying and singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.  Oh, my goodness!  There’s one of the fillies singing right along.  Hope you’ll join in with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nV2Q-eNqMY

Did you do it?  Did you sing along?  I did and I hope you enjoyed singing along, too.

And so now a little about this 25th Year Anniversary Edition of War Cloud’s Passion.  When we do these anniversary books, we freshly edit the book, which is another full edit.  We put a new cover on the book which is a little more up-to-date, and additionally, putting these out again brings the original map (drawn by my then teenage daughter) back in the book, along with the original poster.

Here’s a short blurb of the book:

The Orphan Trains .Anna’s act of kindness to War Cloud’s kidnapped brother has saved the orphans lives. War Cloud, who led the attack upon their train, is enraged because honor demands he lead them to safety. But as passion grows, War Cloud must resist Anna’s charm because a curse hangs over his family, endangering them all should he fall in love.

tinyurl.com/warcloudspassion

Hope you’ve enjoyed the blog today and I hope you’ll tell me some of your favorite Christmas songs and memories.

 

 

 

 

26 thoughts on “Music! Music! The Gift of Christmas Music!”

  2. My favorite Christmas song in the Wexford Carol! I also love all the traditional carols that people sing every year, but not the modern day pop stuff. I guess I’m pretty old school, but thats just me!

    • Hi Ami! I’m not familiar with the Wexford Carol — I’ll have to go and look it up. I love all the traditional carols, too! My most favorite Christmas song — outside of the Hallelujah Chorus is an old, old hymn, “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Love, love that song. : )

  4. Loved your story Karen! I played Music all the time to my grandson when he was young. Mainly it was the Band music of the 40’s. Yes! LOL Although I grew up with classical rock as a teenager. But, my first experience with music was the 1950’s music, my parents teenage years. But playing that old band music got him started. And he was hooked. He is nine years old now, but still loves his music and makes his own music on Garage Band(an app on the iPad). I love all music almost! And many Christmas songs. But a few years ago, I heard Trans Siberian Orchestra and fell in love with Wizards in Winter. Here it is

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D93HMEcwP20

    Merry Christmas!

    • Hi Tracy!

      Of course I went and listened to it. Wow! What a great piece of music! Thank you for leaving the link. Yes,, like you I think music is very, very important to children and I love that you introduced your son to it at an early age. He’s about the same age as my grandson, too, who just turned 10.

      Merry Christmas, Tracy! May this time of the year bring much joy and cheer to you and family!

  5. Kay – How funny that you found that photo of me singing with the plywood carolers! I love Handel’s Messiah. I’ve had the privelege of singing it twice with different choral groups. It’s an amazing piece of music. So powerful. And the Hallelujah Chorus makes me picture the angels singing at Christ’s birth.

    • Hi Karen! Yes, I thought you might have sung it many times. I haven’t ever sung the entire Messiah with choral groups,but I have sung The Hallelujah Chorus many times with several different Choral groups. I love this piece. Like you, I envision the angels singing at Jesus’s birth. Even though I’ve sung it over and over, its beauty still brings tears to my eyes. I thought it was a good find — it was like one of our own fillies singing with the bloggers. Merry Christmas, Karen!

  7. My favorite has always been jingle bell rock. I have liked it every since I can remember when I was little. My second favorite is trans Siberian orchestras ,I think it’s called, the bells. I recently learned the drummer is from my area here in New York!!! I was surprised he was only 30 minutes away when he isn’t performing. I have never seen them but I play songs by them every Christmas!

  8. Merry Christmas! A favorite memory of mine was my grandfather would always play his little record with the song Snoopy’s Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen. I would dance around to it pretending I was an airplane, LOL… it was so much fun. He would play it over and over again seeing how much I loved it!

  10. My favorite song is Christmas for Cowboys by John Denver. I remember we had it on a record when I was a kid and my mom played it all the time. I was able to find it on CD as an adult and buy a copy for my parents and one for me.

  11. I love the Hallelujah Chorus and the Handel’s Messiah is a tradition in our home for Christmas. Thank you so much for sharing.

    • Hi Barbara! Wow! I love that it was a tradition in your home. It wasn’t until I was in different chorus’s that I finally got to hear the Hallelujah Chorus. Have loved it ever since.

  12. I mostly like all the old one’s sung in church. the exception would be Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, Jingle Bells Rock, and all those sung during the 50’s and 60’s. My latest like for the past 2 years is “Mary, Did You Know?” It brings tears to my eyes.

    • I, too love the Christmas songs sung in church. But, gotta admit I love Bing Crosy’s White Christmas, mostly because of the movie Holiday Inn. One of my most favorite movies of all time. “Mary Did You Know” is also a very beautiful song. Thanks so much for sharing..

  13. I love The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole. It doesn’t feel like Christmas if I don’t hear it at least once.

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