Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, Day 21 - Christmas Music

Oh, we didn't just listen to Christmas music - we made Christmas music.  My grandmother's dad had been a fiddle player in his youth and he raised his children to love music.  My grandmother and her sisters sang in church choirs their entire lives.  One sister taught music for some years.  My grandmother used to take her babies into the choir with her in the days before church nurseries.  My mother and her four brothers had been raised to sing at any opportunity and my Mom and one of the brothers also played the piano.

Mom and I lived with her parents for several years and two of the brothers also lived with us at different times. Someone was always at the piano with others looking over the shoulder, singing. So of course, Christmas was just another excuse to sing around the piano.

When Mom had daughters - it was understood we would learn to play the piano.  I even had the same piano teacher Mom did!  We sang, too.  However, I was the only one who really loved the music.  I did learn to play the piano - passably - and I'm still singing - in the church choir and in a Sweet Adelines chorus. 

The following picture is a Christmas past.  One of my sisters is playing the piano and that's my Mom and my three children singing along.

When my children came along, I tried to keep the music going, but times have changed.  No one has much time for singing around the piano anymore and of course we don't all live near each other anymore.

Here's one more Christmas past with Mom at the keyboard.  Ah, if I could go back for just one day.... it would be a day just before Christmas and we'd all sing together again!