Some Christmas Cheer

A group from our church goes Christmas caroling every year just before the holiday. My kids grew up with this tradition, and now we’ve enlisted Ali and Elysian and their two little guys. We set out Sunday evening on a new route that took us to town to sing to some of our older church members. (We used to sing to people in the neighborhood around the church, but we thought it was time for a change.) We discovered early on in the evening that Elysian’s little guy knows ALL THREE VERSES to “Jingle Bells,” so he soloed on them and the rest of us came in on the chorus.

The fun thing about our group is that we sing in four parts—well, three, because we didn’t have any tenors and I was the only alto, so I couldn’t switch to tenor. Still, we sounded pretty good.

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I think the boys had a good time. I am sure they will get to an age when this is a drag, but maybe not. They do like the cookies and treats that accompany this activity.

A box of gifts arrived from my in-laws yesterday, but we aren’t putting up the tree this year. I am going to have to find a special spot for them until Christmas Day.

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The husband says he isn’t sure I should write about this on the blog, but I think it’s rather funny. My sister and I have long joked that we are inbred because our parents are distant cousins. My father’s grandmother and my mother’s grandmother emigrated from the same village in Czechoslovakia. One of my mother’s sisters has been working on the family genealogy. She has gone back far enough to discover that their mother and father—my maternal grandparents—were also cousins, because their grandfathers were brothers. My mother told me that when I talked to her on Sunday.

That explains a lot about why my family’s genome looks the way it does. I am glad I married a guy of German descent. At least my kids benefited from some hybrid vigor.

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We are supposed to get hammered with a snowstorm tomorrow afternoon and evening. It’s aiming directly at Northwest Montana with 6” predicted in the valleys and 1-3 feet of snow in the mountains. We’re at a high enough elevation that the mountain snow totals apply to us, so I am expecting at least a foot., Thankfully, this storm isn’t supposed to have wind with it. I’ve got some things to do in town tomorrow, so I’m hoping the snow holds off until I’m done. Canning a batch of beans is on the schedule for Friday. I’ll put them on to soak today and they should be all ready to go Friday morning.