I just spent about 45 minutes on iTunes, downloading oodles of wonderful Christmas music. It makes my heart sing! I love it! Especially the choral pieces I've sung before.
I am now officially in the Christmas spirit.
I took a break from perusing iTunes because one of the songs jogged my memory, and I wanted to tell you this funny story--it's one of my favorite Christmas memories (there are a lot), and it happened just a couple of years ago.
Nathan and I were spending Christmas with my parents and my brother, Ken. Now, Ken was in seminary and was about as poor as you'd imagine a seminary student to be. His Christmas budget was something like $2 per person, which none of us minded, because if you know Ken, you know that he will do something really good with that $2 and at the very least make you laugh.
Like the year he gave everyone--everyone, no exceptions--a t-shirt with his face on it. He was smiling with his mouth wide open, giving us a thumbs up. It made everyone laugh, and we all wear the shirt proudly (well, around the house, anyway). That's just Ken's humor.
So one year, Ken gave Nathan and me essentially the same present, so he asked us to open them at the same time. We each got a DVD from the $1 bin at Target and a $.50 plastic recorder. (I'm talking the flute-like instrument.) My DVD was "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (now we know what John Travolta was up to before "Saturday Night Fever"), and Nathan's was an old Godzilla movie.
But that wasn't the funniest part. The funniest part was when, immediately after tearing the newspaper wrapping off his gift, Nathan picked up the recorder and began to play "I Saw Three Ships." We all sat there gaping at him. It tickles me just thinking about it right now! Not only did he know how to play the recorder, but he had a song memorized, and it was a Christmas song, no less! What the heck?!
It turns out that they teach you how to play the recorder in elementary school in England. (Along with teaching you how to cross stitch--I totally have Nathan's sampler. I am not kidding.) And Nathan had freakishly remembered not only how to play, but how to play that song. It still cracks me up.
I want to hear your Christmas stories. Leave a comment if you'd like to tell one. (I hope you do! I want to read some good ones!)
2 comments:
Hehe I thought this story was going to be about the shirt, but the recorder story is a good one too. I'm surprised it wasn't Greensleeves though. That's the song I remember hearing ad nauseum.
And speaking of England memories, you should get the Kings College Chapel Choir cds off of iTunes. That is some great Christmas music, and I know Nathan would appreciate it. I got them a few years ago and is incredibly nostalgic, not to mention good music as well.
Were you there the year that either your mom or my mom made up a personalized song to "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? We each had a part and we were forced to sing the whole thing-even Uncle Bill. Leave it to our moms to do something like that.
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