I love Christmas music! I have an extensive collection that I unleash the day after Thanksgiving and the hits just keep on coming. Every year I get at least one new cd; this year has been a bonanza, I’ve gotten FOUR! New additions this year are: Gaither Homecoming Friends He Started The Whole World Singing; Harry Connick Jr Harry For The Holidays; Handel’s Messiah; Clay Aiken Merry Christmas With Love. That last one was a gift which I received yesterday and I have to say it is quite pleasant!
One of my favorite Christmas cd’s from year’s past is Celine Dion’s These are Special Times. I got it the year my first son had his first Christmas and I still remember him at ten months old warbling along in the back seat as we cruised California highways. (no, he couldn’t really sing and still can’t - but his yodeling was very cute!) Although this cd has been replaced as my reigning favorite, there is one song that is very special to me and makes me cry every year. Here’s an excerpt:
These Are The Special Times - by Diane Warren
With each moment, moment passing by
We’ll make memories that will last all our lives
As you and I travel through time together
Living this sweet dream
And every day, we can say
These are the special times
Times we’ll remember
These are the precious times
The tender times we’ll hold in our hearts forever
These are the sweetest times
These times together
And through it all, one thing will always be true
The special times are the times I share with you
I’ve sung that song to each one of my babies in their first December as I danced them around the room. Really, other than its being on a Christmas album, it’s not a Christmas song. And though I only listen to it in December, I want it to be my theme all year long. Older people will occasionally stop me when I’m out with my kids and exhort me to savor my time with them as it goes flying by. And I truly do. I may be harried, and stressed, and tired… I may have days where I am ready to shave my head and take to drink because I think I will never raise these little savages into godly warriors for Christ… But I really, really love my little ones and am blessed to say that I genuinely enjoy them. Almost every day this month I’ve been listening to a little chorus of voices chirping out Joy to the World with various degrees of accuracy and lots of volume. I love it! I love having my little ones pile on my like a litter of puppies. I love watching their building excitement over Christmas. Aww, this is getting awfully mushy. But in a blog which frequently relates the madness of raising four little boys, I wanted to take a moment and, well, share the joy!