Planning, Working, Feasting, And Singing

        This year we celebrated Christmas Eve as we traditionally do, feasting and singing carols with family and neighbors and lighting up our street with Christmas luminaries.
        The preparations for Christmas Eve always start for me weeks in advance with planning and cooking and freezing some items,

     …like the stuffed mushrooms,

…and the cookies. 

       And, of course, there’s the decorating, inside and outside, each decoration and light set in the places where they always go.  To this end I take photos every year of where everything goes so I won’t have to try and remember  the following year.

Our cat Lucy photo-bombing my shot.

Tom does the lights.

      In the days before Christmas Eve there’s the final lists,

...more advance cooking.

...and baking.

     When Christmas Eve finally rolled around it was all hands on deck for cleaning the house,

...putting together the luminaries, which are made from votive candles in baby food jars placed inside 1/2 gallon plastic milk
jugs -  saved all year long -  each with a hole cut in the front.

...and setting them out along the sidewalk,

...fixing the food,

...setting the table,

...and waiting for the guests to arrive, which they did at 7 pm.
     We had been planning on 24 adults and kids, but in the days before Christmas Eve, one by one the numbers dwindled -  sickness, changes in family plans, etc -  until we were down to seven family members and three neighbors.  I was afraid with so few of us the party might not, you know, pop;  but in fact the ten of us ended up seeming like the perfect amount of people and we all really had a great time,

...eating,

...chatting around the kitchen table and catching up on the latest gossip around the 'hood,

...hanging out,

...then some sitting around the fire,

...while the others sang Christmas and Chanukah songs around the piano,

...while the little ones - who insisted that everyone wear "hats" - danced to the music.

     We sang the holiday songs for a while then people began making requests:  "Amazing Grace,"  "Hallelujah",  some of the old church songs like "Peace Is Flowing Like A River",  "And I Will Raise You Up", and "Speak To Me", and some pop ballads, among them "Dock Of The Bay"  and "Midnight Double Feature Picture show".  People found the words to the songs on their I-phones and used them to sing along while I played. 
     I was grateful to be in a house filled with singing on Christmas Eve, and also grateful that most songs use the same five chords.
     Happy Holidays to All!