Thankful-Day 29

Thankful

for

getting Gramma's tree put up.

This is what Abbie and I do
after Thanksgiving
for Gramma.

Then we come back in January
and take everything down
and put it all away for her.

This started a few years ago
when she said she wasn't going to put up a tree
because it was too much work.

I thought: What???
You can't NOT put up a tree!
I'll do it for you then
because you HAVE to have a tree.

(There was just something
about my Mama
not having a tree at Christmas.
The little 7 year old
girl in me
couldn't let this happen!)

So we put up the tree
and decorated it
and Abbie unpacked Gramma's Santa collection
and put those up
and unpacked the Nativities
and put those out.

And it's beginning to look a lot like
Christmas!

The thankfulness doesn't stop there for today!

I'm Thankful
we are continuing our 3-year tradition
of going to the
Messiah Sing-In
at the Symphony Hall.

This happens every year
the weekend after
Thanksgiving
and it is such a
WONDERFUL
way to welcome the
Christmas Season.

This year we met our friends
Shane and Junghe
in SLC at Buca di Beppo
for a tasty Italian dinner

(bad, out-of-focus photo)

then walked to Abravanel Hall
to sing this glorious music.

It always chokes me up.

The sopranos are stunning with their voices ringing in the rafters.
There were a lot of basses this year
and WOW! did they ever sound GREAT!
Not too many altos and I floundered my way through.
Doug has been practicing
and he carried the tenors around us.

It was great.
And every year we go I'm so glad we do this.

Because the weather tonight was beautiful
we walked over to
Temple Square
after Messiah was finished
to see the lights and
the Nativities
and feel the peaceful spirit there.

It was a lovely night
and I'm
Thankful
we could share it with friends.