Halloween this year was downright strange. Kendell was hanging out in bed, recuperating from open heart surgery. That in itself set off a chain reaction:
We're trying to keep him germ free (can you imagine having a cough when you've just had your sternum cut open?)
so
I had to hand out the Halloween candy to the trick-or-treaters
so
my kids didn't have parents to take them trick-or-treating
so
the surrogate parents started stepping up.
Haley went with Jade (granted, she wouldn't have gone with me anyway),
Jake went with his friend Reilly,
Nathan went with his friend Jacob,
and Kaleb went with his friend Lucas.
How strange is that? Each of my kids, begging for candy from the neighbors, with a different friend. I'm not sure I even remember for certain which Halloween was the last one when the four of us all went trick-or-treating together. Quite possibly it was 2005. I hate it when watershed moments pass me by and I don't even notice. So I sat in the front room, waiting for trick-or-treaters and thinking about how this Halloween is probably the new normal. Of course it is. They're all only going to get older, and want to do more things with friends instead of their mom. My brain understands that it's normal.
My heart? Not so much.
Another strange thing: I didn't get a group photo of everyone in their costume together. I always have a group photo! This year, though, Jake left earlier than everyone else, so I just got him by himself. (Note the costume: prison convict, which I found by sheer luck, on clearance, at Joann. Two days before Halloween. It was way too big for him, but he'd not had any strong "I want to be this for Halloween" ideas, so we went with easy rather than fabulous, as in years past.)
Later, I did manage to get Haley, Nathan, and Kaleb together for a snapshot, too.
Haley was a fairy, courtesy of Jade's grandma, who made her fairy skirt for her. (Haley and Jade were twin fairies, although I didn't get a photo of them together, either. Dang.) Nathan reluctantly wore the werewolf costume, which almost doesn't look like anything without the mask, which he hated and wouldn't wear. Kaleb wore the knight costume, which he has worn almost without pause for the past two weeks, so it's all bedraggled and worn out.
Yeah: not the year for fabulous costumes.
Kaleb was the first kid to come home. He didn't want to keep going, even though his friend wasn't finished, so they dropped him off on their way out of our cul-de-sac. He was happy to get into his 'jammies, sort through his candy, and then help me pass out the loot to the trick-or-treaters. He'd stand by the window until he spotted a new group of kids, and then he'd say "Mom! There's a new bunch of customers coming!" He'd wait very impatiently (running around in circles, mostly, stopping occasionally to hug me) for the "customers" to knock on the door, and then he'd put one piece of candy into everyone's bag. Plus, he'd comment: "wow, guy, that is a cool clown face ya've got there!" and once he said "you sure are big for a trick or treater guy!" which made me laugh.
They slowly trickled in, the rest of my kids: Haley and Jade first, and since Haley is trying to achieve her goal of going an entire YEAR without candy (she started in February and is still going strong!), she let me sort through hers to pick out my favorites (Almond Joys, Reese's, Hereshy's bars, and banana Laffy Taffys) before she gave the rest to Jade. Jake came next, and handed over the few items with peanuts he hadn't managed to trade with his friends (he's allergic to peanuts). Finally Nathan, who was nearly glowing after eating dinner and trick-or-treating and watching a movie with his friend's family (thanks so much, Jamie!).
Somewhere within all those comings and goings, I did have time to sit for a minute, all by myself, and just think. About how life moves on, despite hardships, regardless of whether you want it to or not. About how sweet those long-gone Halloweens were, when all my little ones went out together with me---Haley protecting Jake from peanuts (very helpfully putting Snickers and Reese's into her bucket), or Nathan toddling along between Haley and Jake, or the year Kaleb was a baby and we took him trick-or-treating in the stroller. How I usually have more energy and enthusiasm for cool costumes. How it's OK that things have changed, because it was still a pretty good holiday, despite everything.
Making Happy, Music Edition
My parents didn't set an awesome musical example for my sisters and me. Kenny Rogers, Roger Whittaker, Barbara Mandrell. Actually, when I stop to think about it, I'm not sure my mom cared about music at all. My dad did, though; he was a stereophile before they invented the term. At Christmas he'd play the Christmas records of all his favorites, and even then, even at eight or nine, I'd roll my eyes and yearn for something a little more cool. It's a miracle I didn't grow up to be a country-music fan (although two of my sisters did; I do still love them but have been known to gently tease them, too).
Thank goodness some of my favorite musicians have at least one Christmas song for me to track down.
I'll confess: I've bought an entire Christmas CD just to get one song by a musician I love. (Like the nearly-completely horrid Kevin & Bean KROQ CD I bought---used, at least---just so I could have Tori Amos singing "Little Drummer Boy" on my Christmas playlist.) Of course, downloadable MP3s have made this process easier. As has the fact that Sarah M. has a Christmas CD, and then there are the bits and pieces I've found on the Very Special Christmas anthologies, and there's the Barenaked Ladies CD, and I also love the Celtic Women (who don't really fit, but whatever: It's MY Christmas playlist!)
So when I discovered, completely by accident in Walmart, that Tori Amos has a Christmas CD, I purchased it without delay. Without even doing any sort of price comparison! It's been getting fairly heavy rotation since I bought it. I don't love every song on the CD (the song "Pink and Glitter" could not be more annoying to me; when Haley heard it---playing on the stereo in the kitchen---she said "what kind of a weird song is this?), but that's OK, because most of the songs are perfect. What draws me most to Tori Amos's music is her lyrics; she has a knack for an elegant metaphor, a skill at dropping obtuse references that makes me shiver a little bit (in a good way, as in, for example, "Don't Make Me Come to Vegas"---not, obviously, on the Christmas CD---which has this lyric: don't make me pull him out of your head/Athena will attest/that it could be done and yeah: happy shiver), and a way of stringing words together that makes me think we could be friends.
So I didn't really expect her Christmas CD to just be singing the same songs everyone else sings, and I was right. Most of the traditional carols she sings are reinterpreted. In "Star of Wonder," for example, the wisemen speak: "some say we have been in exile/What we need is solar fire." Or "Coventry Carol" (a carol I both love and detest, because it puts you right into the Herod's raging) which has a sort of pre-song introduction thing. What works with the songs is that they sound like a Christmas carol should sound. Except also with the Tori-Amos sound. The new songs (written by her) do, too. "Winter's Carol" is my favorite.
It is, like the rest of my Christmas music, happy making.
Just for fun, the rest of my listen-to-all-December list:
Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan (I love, love her version of "What Child is This?" and "River" and "First Noel" and...well, the entire CD)
Celtic Women (Especially The Carol of the Bells, which is my favorite carol ever)
Joy by Jewel (I think her version of "Joy to the World" is perfect)
and these individual, long-sought-for songs:
Winter Wonderland, Jason Mraz
New York Christmas, Rob Thomas
Little Drummer Boy, Tori Amos (NOT on the new CD...this was the hardest one to find, but worth it as it gives me chills)
Winter Wonderland, Eurythmics
The Coventry Carol, Allison Moyet (Again: chills, even more than the Tori version)
Christmas Day, Dido
I Saw Three Ships, Sting (although I wonder every time I sing along: didn't the writers of Olde English ballads know that Bethlehem is, ummm, landlocked?)
Children Go Where I Send Thee, Natalie Merchant
O Holy Night, Traci Chapman
Oi to the World, No Doubt (This is Kaleb's favorite Christmas song, which never fails to crack me up)
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Sarah McLachlan (not on Wintersong)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Barenaked Ladies & Sarah M.
The Night Before Christmas, Carly Simon
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Pretenders
One of the perks of being a grown up is that I have forgiven my parents for their musical sins. Haley, I'm pretty certain, thinks that most of my music comes straight from the musical garbage heap, which I think is my bad juju for mocking Dad over his Country Christmas Allstars record. It's a good thing, listening to Christmas music your own way.
Now if I could just get over feeling guilty for failing to provide a constant stream of MoTab all December, all would be peaceful and bright.
What's on your Christmas playlist?
PS: writing about music is HARD. Unless you, the reader, has heard the song I am writing about, none of this matters. Must learn more about writing about music!
Saturday, December 12, 2009 in Holidays, Music Commentary | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)