conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

feast of the nativity...

Good morning and Merry Christmas! Trish is asleep. We awoke at 4:30 just because, and while trying to convince ourselves to turn over and go back to sleep, there came the strangest sound from the fireplace. Santa? No, it would seem that Mike the Cat frightened poor old Santa away. We had lit a fire when we got home from the service and the gates to the fireplace were open. Mike crawled in to the now cool fireplace to see what it was all about. Soot everywhere. And we were up.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
-- Isaiah 9:6-7

So, now it is eight in the morning and we are awake. Well, I am. Trish, as I mentioned, has gone back to sleep. We regressed a bit last night and inflated the airmattress so we could sleep next to the Christmas tree. Trish made cookies and watched Harry Potter, the first movie. I passed out. Exhausted.

The service went really well. I compulsively took notes for myself for next year's service. We'll have a review in January as soon as I can muster up the help. No point in doing a review by myself.

The gifts we opened were all lovely...lots of orange for me, orange clothes that is. Lovely!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support the last couple of days. I appreciate it. And thank you all for the kind gifts. I'll be calling many of you today to say so, but I wanted to write it since I was thinking about it.

Danke.

I received one very surprising gift. A parishoner gave me his collection of bluegrass LP's. He had not listened to them in years, so he figured I would get more out of it. These albums are great. Follow the extended link for the list.

Have a very merry Christmas, everyone.

The Blue Sky Boys - double album of recordings from the 30's and 40's
Jean Carignan at the Newport Folk festival
Buck Stone and Range Company (self-titled)
Jim & Jesse, Live In Japan - double album
Jim & Jesse, The Jim & Jesse Story - double album
Prarie Union, Who Are Those Guys?
Leon Russle & New Grass Revival, The Live Album (HOLY COW!!!!)
The Seldom Scene, Act 1
John Hartford, Slumberin' on the Cumberland
Tulla Ceili Band, Ireland Green (Not bluegrass, but also...Holy Cow!!)
Bryan Bowers, The View from Home
Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, Blue Grass Style
The Dillards, Decade Waltz
The David Grisman Quintet (self-titled)
The David Grisman Rounder Album
David Grisman, Early Dawg
Country Cooking, Barrel of Fun
Charlie Monroe, Who's Calling You Sweetheart Tonight
The Original and Great Carter Family, All-Time Country Hits
Fox Hollow 10th Anniversary Album
Flatt & Scruggs, Greatest Hits
Flatt & Scruggs, The Golden Era
Flatt & Scruggs (self-titled)
Fiction Brothers, Things Are Coming My Way
Jack Tottle, Back Road Mandolin
Hylo Brown sings blue grass with 5 string banjo
The Hotmud Family, Buckeyes in the Briar Patch
New Grass Revival, Barren County
New Grass Revival, Fly Through the Country
New Grass Revival, Too Late To Turn Back Now
New Grass Revival (self-titled)
New Grass Revival, When The Storm Is Over
The McPeak Brother (self-titled)
The Louvin Brothers (self-titled)
Lilly Brothers & Don Stover, Early Recordings
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Michigan Bluegrass
New Lost City Ramblers, Moonshine and Prohibition
Paul Martin and his Old-Timers, Banjo in Hi-Fi
Paul Martin, Banjo Mania
Old & In The Way (Grissman, Garcia, Rowan, Kahn, Clements)
New Grass Revival, Commonwealth
The New South (self-titled) (Ricky Scaggs!)
The Seldom Scene, Act Two
The RFD Boys
The RFD Boys, RFD 2
The RFD Boys, RFD No. 3
The Skillet Lickers, Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia

And several compendiums from the Library of Congress, National Geographic and others...

There you go...I'll be listening forever. Thank you.

Posted by tripp at December 25, 2006 07:50 AM