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| A family tradition |
In our parts winter usually waits until January to truly arrive but the White Witch seems to be on the move. We had about 4 inches Saturday afternoon into early Sunday morning.
The Common Household Son came over before the storm hit to wrap a present and help me put up the Advent-Hanukkah paper chain. Our interfaith family was in need of our own tradition for this time of year. This one has withstood the test of time, although some of the paper has disintegrated. You can get a detailed description here.
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The weather outside turning frightful, I set to work on a most enjoyable task – writing Christmas and Hanukkah cards. The irony here is that Hanukkah cards are not really a widespread thing, but I like to send them, and since Hanukkah is often before Christmas, sometimes the Hanukkah cards are the only ones that get sent. This time I managed to finish more than 40 cards. It’s a whole production which I may or may not describe in a separate post.
Then, another homebound activity - checking out the music for tomorrow’s worship service. I have always sung soprano, but my range has been contracting as I age, so I sometimes try to sing the tenor line. Singing harmony is a real challenge for me, as I’ve always played or sung the melody. I spent some time at the piano enjoying playing through some Advent hymns. It turns out this cozy music session was fortuitous.
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| It is my tradition to always measure the snow with this ruler. |
The next morning I measured the snow on the deck. I usually like to measure in front of the house too, because we often have a mullet fall of snow - short in the front, longer in the back. But I wasn’t going to put on my boots just for the sake of measuring.
I got the notice that the church music director was not able to make it to church at all. But wait! I played through the hymns just the previous day. Knowing that very few people would actually be in church to hear it, I volunteered to play the music.
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| The perfect drip takes several tries. |
I put some oatmeal on the stove. Porridge (as my dear uncle of blessed memory called it) – the non-instant kind – is just the ticket for a cold winter morning. Then I achieved the perfect drip to keep the water pipes flowing, and went outside.
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| The deer visited in the night. |
The world is a special kind of quiet on a Sunday morning after a snowstorm.
The Common Household Husband and I set to work shoveling the driveway. In past years, the Snow Fairy has done this, sometimes at 3 AM, but the Snow Fairy is getting old and wanted help. Together we got the job done. We have never used a snow blower and I will keep using the traditional method as long as I can. As we shoveled, the township snowplow/salt truck did its magic.
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| The Common Household Husband starts at the other end of the driveway, which is harder, because of the snowplow snow. |
There were a few slippery spots on the roadways to church but I made it just fine with ten minutes to spare. There were a handful of people gathered – probably fewer than twenty.
Folks, it turns out there is a LOT of music in a worship service besides the hymns. It turns out that ten minutes is barely enough time to get organized to play all of the worship music. All that in between music, such as after the lighting of the Advent wreath, after the assurance of pardon, during the offering, etc etc, was waiting to be played and sung, too. I was very nervous and muddled through, playing some interesting melodies and harmonies. It is my strong belief that all musical mistakes are corrected on their way to God’s ears. Maybe not on the way to the congregation’s ears, but God is the actual audience.
About halfway through the service I remembered that the Best Practice is to determine the key signature, time signature, and tempo before starting to play. I was sight reading some of the music, and I’m sure it showed, but I was glad to be able to contribute to worship. I did get to play a few of my favorite Advent hymns for some of the in between music.
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| While we were shoveling snow, a huge flock of geese flew over head. By the time I got my phone out for a photo, they were gone, leaving just the winter sky. |
