As we decorate, it occurs to me that a Christmas tree holds so much more than ornaments. Resting on all those boughs is a treasure trove of memories that remain long after the tree is gone and Christmas itself is over for another year. The Mistletoe Mystery
It is no secret to anyone who knows me that I love Christmas. I have since I was a child, and as an adult, it has become an entire season for making music, decking the halls and celebrating with friends and family. In the 1980’s my husband and I performed as a high tech musical duo for several overseas tours with the DOD/USO, entertaining the men and women who served in the armed forces far away from home.
Hand carved desk sign from the Philippines
One year, we did a seven week Asian tour that stretched over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve – honestly, I didn’t expect to miss the holidays. But when Christmas Eve arrived while we were in the Philippines, I shed a few tears of homesickness. After our concert that night, we were invited to a local Christmas Eve service in a newly completed mahogany cathedral. It was magnificent, this cathedral with no walls, open to the warm night air and dark skies filled with a million stars. We were humbled and grateful when we were treated as guests of honor. While singing Silent Night by candlelight accompanied by young girls playing guitars, I couldn’t help but think of that lovely song’s first performance in 1818 for a Christmas Eve service in Austria. It was written to be accompanied by guitar when the church organ broke. 
That was a Christmas I will never forget – no trees, no presents, no decorations, but brimming over with unfamiliar but delicious food, bountiful good will, the kindness of strangers, and a midnight sky outlined by palm trees swaying in the breeze between mahogany columns. When we returned home from the tour, I promised, like Scrooge, that I would always “keep Christmas” and I have. I even wrote a song inspired by that special moment.
I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
This year will be another memorable Christmas for me. Last week, I began the deep house cleaning that I do before decorations go up. In my enthusiasm, I slipped on a wet tile floor, thereby performing an impromptu cheerleader split. Ouch. An ambulance ride and several days in the hospital revealed that my hamstring was torn and that I had several months of bedrest and sofa lounging ahead of me. My first night at home, I went through all five stages of grief in a few hours and then resigned myself to a quiet winter of healing and restoration. No Christmas trees, no lights, no bows, no ribbons, no wreaths. No snow filled adventures in the garden with Pixie and worst of all, no sitting, at least for a while. The many guests who were coming here for Christmas dinner have been redirected to my niece’s house while Pixie, Bill and I will have a quiet feast at home.
Lest you pity me, I’ve already made the necessary mental and emotional adjustments and have come to see this is an opportunity to consider new avenues of creativity and to plan for the coming garden season. Since I can only stand for a short time or recline at this point, no holiday cards are going out and no new garden videos will be posted until I regain mobility and am able to sit at a computer. That said, I offer instead my Christmas video from last year that uses Christmas in my Heart as its soundtrack – the story of that beautiful Christmas Eve spent so far away from home. (my apologies for the repeat to those of you who have seen it before!)
And if you want to see and hear Bill and me as our duo Aergo in the 1980’s, watch this historical music video of us performing Free the same year we did that memorable tour.
Here’s wishing each and everyone of you a holiday season filled with joy, wonder and happy celebrations, no matter where you find yourself. Peace ❤️
composerinthegarden 
What a surprise, Lynn! I’m glad you’re not fighting it and it sounds like the healing is progressing. Enjoy the rest and the coziness of home. 🙂
That’s the secret, isn’t it Lynn? I’ve become an active participant in my recovery and settled into cozy mode at home, especially now that I’m mobile and able to do a few things. Wishing you a warm cozy Christmas at the end of a difficult year. ❤️
Thank you, I’m going to try my best. In any case, I’ll get some sun in January – spending a week around L.A. – and I’m planning a fall trip with a friend, so there are good things to look forward to. 🙂
Glad you’re mobile!
That’s good to hear, sun in January can never be overestimated. I’ll be thinking of you. 😊
I hope that you make a faster than expected and very thorough recovery! And, despite everything, I hope that you will have a joy-filled Christmas and New Year.
Thank you so much Ann. I am recovering rather quickly and we are planning for a small cozy Christmas this year. Wishing you a Happy Christmas and New Year!
I am sorry to hear of your injury and hope you are on the mend and fully healed soon!
Thank you for sharing the beauty of your music and your garden with us.
Thank you Carolyn! I am definitely on the mend and hope to be ready for garden season this spring! Wishing you and Bob and your family a wonderful holiday season. ❤️
Best wishes for a happy Christmas and joy-filled new year!
Thank you Kate! Wishing the very same for you.😊
Here’s to a speedy recovery! As they say, when one door closes another one opens.
I know too well the impact that illness can have on holiday preparations. Some years back my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia at the end of November. We abandoned Christmas preparations – but some of what we didn’t do got done for us by others! We discovered the value of a reset button – from that day on, Christmas has been simpler and calmer.
Thank you Margy, for your well wishes and for the story of your daughter at Christmas. The value of a reset button should never be underestimated.
Sorry about your fall but try to enjoy a winter of rest and healing. Knowing you, you will come up with new and productive ways of sharing the restorative benefits of a quiet life on the couch! Best wishes for the holidays and beyond to you, Bill and Pixie!
Ah Mary, you are so right! Now that I’m starting to feel better, my imagination is beginning to stir. Thank you for your kind words, and a beautiful holiday to you as well. ❤️
I’m so sorry that you’ve had this setback. Hopefully, you’ll be fine for gardening times ahead.We’ve spent many years traveling over winter break (as academics, without children) , so have had many experiences of Christmas in far-flung places. Always interesting.But nice to be back home in NC for simple Christmases in recent years.
Thank you, Lisa. Nice to know that you are a fellow traveler; it does change one’s perspective significantly. When that song popped into my head yesterday, I realized that this isn’t my first time without the trappings of the holiday and I just let go of all my expectations and am feeling unexpectedly cheery.
What rotten luck but congratulations on facing up to it so well. Not all of us would manage that, I think.
Rotten luck is the perfect term to describe it, tootlepedal. But there it is and it’s best to move on. I’m starting to feel quite upbeat, surprisingly.
I am glad to hear that. Making the best of it is always a sound policy.
It’s good we’ve gotten to look at and listen to the 40-year-younger you that’s embedded within the current you, even if it took temporarily impairing the current one to make that happen. Sounds like you’ve adopted quite a salutary attitude to recovery, which is the first big step on the way.
Looking beyond this holiday season, are you planning to compose a piece for the country’s 250th anniversary that will be upon us before we know it?
I miss that younger me sometimes, Steve, but I do have some amazing memories and stories from that part of my life.
As for composing, I haven’t been doing much of that lately but I do have an orchestral piece called Sketches of America that was recorded several years ago that sums up my feelings about our beautiful country. I’m sure I’ll post it next summer, but thanks for the nudge. Let me know if you would like the CD of it, I would be happy to send you one.
“I miss that younger me sometimes….” As a photographer from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s I worked with quite a few models. Two years ago I began a project of organizing and making digital contact sheets of my old negatives, along with sorting through boxes of vintage prints. In the process of doing all that, I managed to track down a good half dozen of those models, whom I invited over one by one so I could give them vintage prints and digital versions of some pictures I’d never printed. The models were quite happy to see their “younger me” again after four decades. In one case it turned out that a disaster had long ago destroyed her old pictures, so the replacements were particularly valuable to her. Unfortunately there were many more models I didn’t succeed in tracking down, including the one I worked with the most of all in that era.
Sorry to hear of this horrible injury, Lynn, but it seems you have adapted to the reality of the situation. 👍🏼 👏🏼
It is so true that the spirit of Christmas remains intact within our hearts. A beautiful song that deserves to be in the top 10!
Thank you Eliza – I’m improving daily and allowing myself the time to heal. Once I got over the shock, I decided that healing in time for gardening season was my top priority. I’m glad you enjoyed the song and thank you for that vote of appreciation.🥰
At the risk of expressing “pity,” I’ll mention how sorry I am to hear of your injury, Lynn, and wish you a full–and speedy as possible–recovery. (I strained–it wasn’t torn–my hamstring back during my baseball-playing days and even that took the entire off-season to fully heal.)
Truly, take it easy, and I’m sure next year’s Christmas will be as full and happy as ever.
I see you understand the pain, Kerry – it is very inconvenient not to be able to sit or bend over! Thank you for your well wishes, truly. I’m at the point where I can walk with relative ease and stand at my computer for about 20 minutes at a time. The bright spot is that they expect me to be in good shape for gardening season 😊