'Tis the Season

I HAVE to go to this:









Can you imagine watching this ballet? Wow- who in NYC wants to go?


One thing I love about the wintertime is being cultured! It's Opera season and Ballet season. Christmastime brings the Rockettes and the Nutcracker. How wonderful!

Tonight at church we had an Open Forum. It started off with a full symphony and choir on stage and they performed Haydn's "Creation". The music was absolutely beautiful. Then Keller went into his lecture on 'Can faith be green?'. Good, interesting talk and I stayed afterwards for the q&a which was both of the same.

So, I'm all about traditions. I love traditions and how particular they are to people/families. I just decided on a new tradition I'm going to start. Here's the preview- two years ago I went to the Redeemer Christmas program where they probably had the same symphony & choir that was there tonight. The songs then included many classical pieces, mostly of Handel's Messiah. It was incredible. They did it last year and it was again, amazing.

I listened to Handel's Messiah growing up. We've always wanted to go to the Duke Chapel and hear it performed live- my Dad's dream! Last year I bought the whole Messiah cd on iTunes. From time to time I'll put my iPod on shuffle just to mix things up a bit in life... cause life can get mundane you know... but when I hear a song from the Messiah, I immediately and frantically hit 'next'!

I love Handel's Messiah but as every song played on my iPod is repeated a million times (that's how I roll, I repeat my fav's).... sometimes they can loose that specialness. Which is why my new tradition is going to be on the day after Thanksgiving to play Handel's Messiah for the first time that year and listen to it up until Christmas. Yes, there will be tears. It is that good. I'll probably play it when I start on my first batch of Christmas cookies. And my family will be here this year to start the tradition! Hooray!