On the 8th Day of Christmas - I have a dream...

I have a dream. 
Well 2 dreams really.

The first is to be a musical family.  
That we will each play music of some sort.
That we will each enjoy it.
AND - that we will enjoy playing it together.

I KNOW!!! BIG DREAM HUH!!

An amazingly enormous part of that dream is playing the piano
while my husband plays the violin, and someday that I will actually
 accompany him rather than just regular old playing.

The 2nd Dream is my Christmas Dream.
and that is one day I hope to play the Accompaignment to
Mary's Lullaby by Wanda West Palmer
as my husband plays the Melody on the Violin.

Tonight after Matt and I played together
he set his violin on the piano
and it was so beautiful.
It is a very old and special violin.
It was a precious picture
of a very special moment in time for me.

It took me about 20 minutes to capture it
well in a photograph.
I don't think I am quite there yet
as far as capturing the feeling of the moment in a photo.
But I think I'm close.

I wanted to give it a caption
because I LOVE words and beautiful fonts.

But there are no words.

I guess you can add this as part of the dream too:

Tonight we did something we have wanted to do for years

we invited friends over to sing and do Christmas-y things.

Every year I have this Christmas Party or Christmas FHE daydream.

It is filled with wonderful people

and delicious foods and goodies

and we all sing together or play instruments or do sing solo's

and no one is embarrased because we are all filled with Love for our Savior

and Joy for the season.

And all is FABULOUS.

Well, except for the part that I always chicken out.

This year, I decided to plan it early and keep it simple.

We invited our sweet neighbor family.

• We sang silly songs ( Once There Was A Snowman, Dashing thru the snow on a pair of broken skii's)
• Then Izzy - Alex and their friend - sang the 1st verse of Silent Night,
• and Izzy SANG SOLO (HELLLLOO!!!!!!) the last verse of Silent Night
• Then Matt and I played FLAWLESSLY together 2 verses of Away in a Manger ( Go Us!!)
• We played Christmas Dice
• We Unwrapped a book
• We opened a baggie with a Christmas thought and a goodie
• And we prayed.
• Followed by goodies around the kitchen table of course.

MANY MANY MANY little moments in the last 3 1/2 months

have told me in profound ways that we are here where we are because

we are meant to be in the lives of these sweet neighbors.

I know why.  That was obvious VERY quickly. 

I just don't know if it is because they will teach us?  

We will teach them? Or because they just need us to be here.

Tonight I am grateful 

for music 

and the power it has

to 

lift

inspire

teach 

unite

soothe 

and glorify. 

I am grateful that 

I am able to see the hand of the Lord 

in my life and to feel His love. 

I am grateful to see little dreams come to fruition 

with a hope that greater dreams 

will find themselves 

answered as well.  

I am grateful that this year 

I listened to the promptings of the spirit 

that I should be prepared early

that I don't have to wait and 

do EVERYTHING

Christmas week 

and that I can keep things simple and 

it will still be wonderful. 

and WONDERFUL it IS!