Sing, Sing a Song!

Remember, back at the beginning of the year, the dooms day people predicted today would be the end of the world. I am very happy to announce that they were wrong! I am so glad I didn't put off Christmas shopping. For a while, I thought we should wait till the 22nd, just in case it was the end, but then I remembered- you can't take it with you! So, in typical Pongon style, there are way too many presents under the tree. We can pay bills next month.

Those of you who know me should recall that I am not a big fan of Christmas. Let me clarify: I am not a fan of the commercial aspects, the present orgy, the hustle and bustle. Don't like it. Never have, never will. I do believe in the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior, Jesus. We always try to start the 2-day marathon of Christmas by attending Mass on Christmas Eve. For me, it's the most important part. For so many years, especially when the girls were little, getting to church often got scratched off the list as we tried to manage all the family obligations. As our extended family has grown, other family members needed to make changes to the usual traditions. That change made it possible for just me, Marc and the girls to have Christmas Eve all to ourselves. It was a good change. I promise that this year I am going to dig down deep inside and pull out some joy and really have a great Christmas. Fingers crossed that my evil mast cells don't make an appearance!

Ok- getting back to the world NOT ending. So, now what? Last March I blogged about it, and there was some good stuff there about how to enjoy the gift of life. Scroll through my blog archive and read it again. I hope you can find a few things from my suggestion list to incorporate into your life

My plan is to keep it simple. Three words: live, love, laugh. Easy. Oh, I want to add sing. Live, love, laugh and sing. Even if you suck at singing, you will feel better if you crank up the radio and sing along! WARNING: your children may laugh at and mock you. Especially if you have the free "Glee" app on your iPad, and when you leave the house, those sneaky devils listen to the songs you sang and totally ROCKED! Ignore them. For me, singing is when I feel closest to God. Obviously I'm not singing Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" to feel that bond. I'm not too proud to admit that I pull out my old Amy Grant cd's and sing as loud as I can. I also have several more traditional songs on my iPod and love to sing 'em! Remember that song from, er, maybe the 70's that went sorta like: "Sing, sing a song. Sing out loud, sing out strong"? My big sister will know it.

I come from a musical family. My sister Lori, my brother Tim and I all sang in the extremely elite (think Glee) jazz choir in high school. My other brother, Rick, played the trumpet. We all performed in the school musicals. Not to brag, but there is an Ado Annie, Maria Von Trapp, Annie Oakley and that mean guy from Oliver deep inside all of my siblings. I took years of piano lessons, but it didn't stick. The only song I can play is "Joy to the World". I guess if you can only play one song, that's a pretty good one. One of the things I love most about my family, is that WITHOUT fail, if you start singing a song, the singers will all join in. Sounds dorky, but I LOVE it, and it makes me LAUGH. (See- that live, love, laugh, sing philosophy works!)

Wait a minute! Ignore everything you have just read. Hannah just took great joy in letting me know that it's 2012 when the world will end. Crap! Oh well, I'm still gonna sing, sing out loud and sing out strong! Try it, you'll like it.