Christmas should be frolicsome

In a departure from my usual somber posts I am celebrating this evening with a line from tonight's service of Lessons and Carols at West Virginia Wesleyan College here in Buckhannon.  It is from a carol published in 1720 in the Burgundian dialect in France, and enjoins all to praise the fact that "God and man are now become more at one than fife and drum . .  when we hear the fife and drum, Christmas should be frolicsome."

Yes, frolicking is possible even when your company is mostly over 80 and you're living in rural Appalachia.  Maybe ESPECIALLY if those two things are true, because that's the spirit of these old carols.  The days are waning, and evil is palpable, so it takes an act of faith and will to choose joy.

Friday we left Scott to do some heavy-duty skype meetings and work and enjoyed a day on the town, discovering gourmet coffee, main street, organic lunch, and a thousand poinsettias in a greenhouse at the local florists.  Points if you can pick out a very un-prancer detail that assures you the photo is a typical downtown view in central WV in early December.

Thanks to the friendly proprietor of Dough-Re-Mi (the apple tarts are worth the trip) we were alerted to the evening festivities, which we thought was a choral society singing carols but turned out to be a CHRISTMAS PARADE.  Yes, in the dark of midwinter, the frolicking of fire engines and baton twirlers and a marching band. (Note our bargain battery-powered flashing-light hats).

This is the cement truck that poured our pizza oven slab.

There were multiple girls on fire.

Selfie with Santa

Saturday Scott and I drove to Virginia for my Uncle Harold's 90th birthday party.  Out of 15 kids, there are only 3 siblings of my dad's still alive.  Uncle Harold was his business partner his entire adult life, and his closest-in-age brother.  It was well worth the drive (there and back because we didn't want to leave the parents too long) to hear him pray for all of us in the same phrases my dad would use, to delve into my cousin Doug's pig roast, to hug relatives I've only seen a few times in the last two decades, and to listen to excellent bluegrass music.  

 My cousin Doug, we share the same bday month and year and went to high school together

 Uncle Harold 

 Cousins

Today we invited our neighbors for dinner after church, then headed back into Buckhannon for the WVWC festival of Lessons and Carols.  This is the school where my parents met, and both graduated from there in the late 50's.  Scripture, carols, creative arrangements, and the tried and true of brass and organ and Hark the Herald.  All ending in filing out to light candles around a Christmas tree, and meet some people who knew my mom back in the day.  Christmas music is my jam.  This is the kind of event that I long for when I am in Africa.  So this was a true treat.

Tomorrow we're working on our seminars for Urbana, and all weekend between these events we've been working on a mailing to supporters.  We have security meetings and correspondence and writing assignments and many undone to-do's.  But tonight let's remember that in the face of a world gone awry, Christmas should be frolicsome.  Go frolic.