My sister, shopping with the girls, Joy

1. My sister --- we called her today to sing to her at work
   
   
2. A day of Christmas shopping with the girls in Nashville
   
   
3. Sometimes it's difficult to control what music we're listening to, what music gets piped into the stores. This year I have realized that most of the songs that I associated with my dad, the ones I remember clearly hearing him sing and playing for him while he sang, were Christmas songs. I loved to play "Gesu Bambino" for him. I remember last Christmas when he sang "O Holy Night" for church after just getting out of the hospital yet again, and he got to the line "chains shall He break," and he got some emotional he had trouble finishing the song.
   
   There is a song on my Kathy Mattea Christmas CD, Joy for Christmas Day, that she recorded to honor her dad who had recently passed away. That song comes to my mind often now, to remind me that my grief would be so much stronger now if it wasn't for that first Christmas day, and it helps to make this season a bit easier though I still really miss my dad.
   
   I brought my tree down to the shore
   The garland and the silver star
   To find my peace and grieve no more
   To heal this place inside my heart
   
   One tiny Child can change the world
   One shining Light can show the way
   Through all my tears for what I've lost
   There's still my joy
   There's still my joy for Christmas day
   
   The snow comes down on empty sand
   There's tinsel moonlight on the waves
   My soul was lost but here I am
   So this must be Amazing Grace
   
   One tiny Child can change the world
   One shining Light can show the way
   Beyond these tears for what I've lost
   There's still my joy
   There's still my joy for Christmas day
   
   There's still my joy for Christmas day