Light and Song
We've just returned home from celebrating the Winter Solstice. Mika's first! Typically, the Solstice celebration is held out at the lake. Due to the timing of everything, we had a fire over at Mika's GrandAunt Anna's instead. Mika ate some pyrogies, even the onions..another first. She really enjoyed them. They were made by the fine folks at St. Hermans. There was Serbian Soup too! And homemade mulled crabapple cider. So. Good.
Mika hadn't ever really seen fire before, so even though the bonfire was small this year, she was loving it! She wanted to go *in* the fire, of course. Mika just kept looking around at the people, some of whom were holding lit candles, and the fire and then back at me with this expression like "Can you believe this? Is this the best thing that's ever happened or what?" Then the singing started. Mika loves singing and music. I thought her little head was going to explode at everyone singing around a fire. It was almost too much for her to take in all at once. The first song of the night was sung all in German, so we were a little lost. And the second song was in German too as it was a repeat of the first one because it sounded so wonderful. And to be truthful, I don't know all of the lyrics to most carols in English let alone any other language. The best I can do is play them on a soprano recorder. Nice. Maybe next year I just will. Better than singing "We three kings from nowhere are - trying to sell some cheap underwear - so fantastic, no elastic, $0.25 a pair!", which is what I did tonight. I don't recall ever hearing all five verses of that song sung before either. My favorite was Auntie Anna's verse: "Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume - Breathes of life of gathering gloom - Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying - Sealed in the stone-cold tomb." Who knew carols could be so kewl? Certainly not I. Thankfully, Daddy has a lifetime of Solstice celebrations behind him and can get by on most of the traditional carols. Maybe even a bit of the German ones too!
It was a wonderful evening and I can't wait to go back next year. Even though Mika will be 22 months old and much more difficult to keep out of the fire.
Mika hadn't ever really seen fire before, so even though the bonfire was small this year, she was loving it! She wanted to go *in* the fire, of course. Mika just kept looking around at the people, some of whom were holding lit candles, and the fire and then back at me with this expression like "Can you believe this? Is this the best thing that's ever happened or what?" Then the singing started. Mika loves singing and music. I thought her little head was going to explode at everyone singing around a fire. It was almost too much for her to take in all at once. The first song of the night was sung all in German, so we were a little lost. And the second song was in German too as it was a repeat of the first one because it sounded so wonderful. And to be truthful, I don't know all of the lyrics to most carols in English let alone any other language. The best I can do is play them on a soprano recorder. Nice. Maybe next year I just will. Better than singing "We three kings from nowhere are - trying to sell some cheap underwear - so fantastic, no elastic, $0.25 a pair!", which is what I did tonight. I don't recall ever hearing all five verses of that song sung before either. My favorite was Auntie Anna's verse: "Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume - Breathes of life of gathering gloom - Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying - Sealed in the stone-cold tomb." Who knew carols could be so kewl? Certainly not I. Thankfully, Daddy has a lifetime of Solstice celebrations behind him and can get by on most of the traditional carols. Maybe even a bit of the German ones too!
It was a wonderful evening and I can't wait to go back next year. Even though Mika will be 22 months old and much more difficult to keep out of the fire.
posted by Mama_T at 8:47 PM
1 Comments:
That's so cool! Is it a family thing or a community thing?
(Is it something we can invite ourselves to next year?)
:^)
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