The Elves Arrived…Followed by Music

This week has been very busy and active, even for an old retired guy. Helen (adorable wife) and I have been madly wrapping gifts, decorating (again), preparing meals, and spiffing up the place…bigly.  All this activity was spurred on by the anticipation of some very special visitors who finally arrived a few days ago. Our son and daughter-in-law are here along with our precious granddaughters but, prior to their arrival, the special guests I’m referring to miraculously appeared to add a significant amount of excitement to the season.  I’m talking about the Elves on a Shelf and did they ever liven things up…bigly.

The girls (ages 7 and 5) and their parents arrived late after an enjoyable trip on the Polar Express train in North Carolina.  The hour was late. The girls had slept little in the back seat during the ride here so, after a quick bath and a short bedtime story from their grandmother, they were nestled snugly into their bed as were their grandparents.

Early (and I mean early) the next morning, the walls literally shook as four tiny little feet came racing down the stairs and into the living room. Their parents had sent out whispers of a rumor that the Elves had left Charleston early the previous afternoon and, (providing that all were on their best behavior during the trip to Knoxville), would arrive in Knoxville overnight.

The search was on and, lo and behold, sitting high over their heads were Kat, Kitty, Kyle, Lily, Jacob, Jack, Jake, Princess, Lulu, and Rocker, the same Elves that had last been seen on a shelf in Charleston, SC. All were in good spirits and had made the trip over the mountain seemingly without incident. It was a wonderful reunion and a glorious event. The girls looked around in amazement, and their grandparents were overjoyed at being able to witness it all.

Throughout the rest of the day, there was a persistent rumor that the Elves would reposition themselves overnight and could be found in a different location the next morning. This rumor only added to the usual Christmas fervor and ultimately proved to be exhausting for the youngest of the two.  She fell asleep before dinner in the arms of her big sister who helped with placing her in her bed—after giving assurance that she would have her up the next morning in time to begin the search anew. I have it from a good source that the repositioning did take place.

There is no greater joy than little children at Christmas time.

With family activity, and a busy week surrounding us, Easin’ Along will be a little shorter today. Instead, I have shortened this week’s post by a few hundred words to share with you a video of the annual Christmas Concert given by our church choir earlier this month. We have an incredible choir composed of talented voices from our congregation who are joined by very gifted students from the music program at the University of Tennessee. We also have the blessing of accompanying music from members the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for this concert to add greatly to our pleasure. I always consider this concert as the beginning of the Christmas season.

The format of the video did not permit editing, so I have listed the pieces performed by the choir and the orchestra below. The numbers in parentheses represent the starting point for each piece and you can go directly to that piece by moving along the scroll bar at the bottom of the video until that number appears. Click the scroll bar at that point. As an example, one of my favorite pieces, Bugler’s Holiday, begins at 55:52.  Enjoy!

Here are the selections from the concert:

(0:00) Introductions and announcements

(7:00) Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

(12:04) Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

(17:00) Oh Come All Ye Faithful

(21:06) Christmas Festival

(28:55) All My Heart This Night Rejoices

(35:24) Arise, Your Light Has Come

(41:39) How Great Our Joy!

(45:00) Hark the Herald Angels Sing

(48:00) Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

(55:52) Bugler’s Holiday

(59:23) The First Noel

(1:04:56) Joy to the World

(1:09:30) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Helen and I wish every reader a blessed Christmas and send heartfelt wishes for a Happy New Year.  We have a lot of plans for 2018 beginning with a trip in Betty, our RV in January when we’ll be Easin’ Along the retired road. Hope you’ll be along with us.