Dear Family and Friends,Well, it's that time of year again. Time for Christmas decorating, cookie baking, card writing, gift sending and gig playing (for those of us who work as freelance musicians). We actually really love this time of year. Joey and I both enjoy putting our Christmas decorations out, and this year we decided to invest in a much bigger and higher quality fake tree (is that some kind of oxymoron?). We also decided to use white lights instead of colored lights, and I think they look really beautiful. White lights are a European tradition, and I have always thought they looked very elegant.
We have had fun watching Clara experience her first Christmas season. The town of Stonington puts on an event every year called the "Stonington Stroll". People gather in the green and sing Christmas carols, drink hot cider and celebrate the lighting of the tree. This is followed by a lovely walk down Water Street (the main street with all of the restaurants and shops) where businesses have decorated their windows and give out free goodies and wine. Joey, Clara and I took part in the stroll and had a lot of fun singing and looking at the decorations. Joey and Clara were interviewed and photographed by a reporter from the "Westerly Sun"(a local Rhode Island paper) during the carol sing, and we were shocked to find that a picture of Joey and Clara with carolers in the background made the front cover of the paper the next morning!
We have been doing other fun Christmas activities. We took a trip to a Christmas tree farm where we picked up a wreath and a few other "real" holiday plants. Clara had fun looking at the wreaths and Christmas store. We also took a trip to Providence, RI to check out a mall everyone had been telling us about. It was a very nice mall, and Clara got to meet Santa (well, Santa's helper) and have her picture taken with him. She wasn't too sure that Santa was such a stand-up guy. At one point during the photo shoot she turned to check him out a little closer and promptly burst into tears. Overall though, I think it was an okay first experience with a mall Santa, and the pictures turned out pretty cute. We also visited an old Cider mill in Mystic, CT where we enjoyed fresh apple cider and wine tasting.
December can sometimes be a very busy month, especially when your husband is a church musician. Joey has had some really busy years in the past with multiple Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services to play. This year, however, is really pretty simple. There is only one Christmas Eve service at 11pm and then a Christmas morning service at 10am at Calvary. I am going to be playing violin for the Christmas Eve service. Also, in the past Joey has had to commute quite a distance for church and kill time between services. This year he will actually get to spend a lot of time at home and even enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and me. My parents arrive on December 19th and will be here until January 2nd. My aunt and uncle from Virginia (Clara's Godparents) will also be here to celebrate New Years with us. We are really excited about seeing everyone. Unfortunately we can't make it home to MN this year, so we will miss seeing Joey's side of the family. We hope they can come see us sometime this Spring.
Clara is going to be 8 months old on the 20th. She is now sitting up all by herself. She can sit and play for several hours which allows me to get some good practicing done while I watch her. She responds well to my playing. She really likes my bow, and when I play something fast she laughs and claps. It's pretty cute. (Clapping is also a newly learned skill). She sleeps 9-10 hours a night, usually waking up once for a quick bottle and then going back to sleep. She is also starting to develop a better napping routine. Napping has always been difficult for her, but she is starting to have longer naps at more predictable times, which makes my life a lot easier. She is a sweet little girl, and we are excited about her first Christmas. She has a sparkly red dress to wear on Christmas day, and I recently took some photos of her in it in front of the Christmas tree. I used the best pictures for our Christmas card, so I won't post those until later. Here are a few others to enjoy.
It's easy to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas. Joey and I sometimes have to stop and remind ourselves about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. It is also a wonderful time to give thanks to God for the many blessing in our lives. Whatever your beliefs or traditions this time of year, we hope you have a magical holiday season with very little stress and a lot of happiness and love!
Joey, Erin and Clara