God Bless us, every one!!

Okay, so after a rocky beginning of the season, CHRISTMAS is finally in my heart! To stay, even! See, 'round about October I was SO ready for Christmas... singing the songs, dreaming of decorating and cooking and baking... cold days and warm cider and cocoa. Then something happened. I am not sure what it was, but suddenly I just wasn't feeling it anymore. It's been creeping up lately, but this afternoon my lovely husband and I hopped on the MAX and headed downtown (making the necessary stop @ Borders' Seattle Best Cafe for some YUMMY carmel apple cider) to Pioneer Square to listen to 200+ TUBAS!!! It was SO amazing! It took quite a while to find a place to stand, even, it was so crowded. But we finally found a nice place and listened to the 88 year old conducter tell his funny stories and some tuba history between lovely Christmas caroles. It was nice, but it (the Christmas spirit, if you will) didn't really hit me until we were singing Hark! The Harold Angels Sing.
There we were: thousands of complete strangers from all walks of life singing "God and sinner reconciled... Christ is born in Bethlehem..." And it wasn't a big deal. Now, I know that a lot of those people really couldn't care less about the "religious" aspect of Christmas, but it was just SO encouraging to see so many different people smiling and singing and... I don't know. It just touched my heart.
I am not sure too many people read this - or even know I'm here, but in case you ARE reading and if you DO care, I'll be flying to CO soon and might not be on here for a while. So I pray that YOU will enjoy the magic of this season and not get caught up in the "stuff."
Merry Christmas!!!
And, in the timeless words of the profound little cripple: God bless us, every one!!