Christmas Stories

The Christmas Card

My grandchildren, Little Political Spheres 1 and 2, and the camels
playing the wise men, for this year's Christmas card

Every year for about 35 years I have made our Christmas card, folded so I can print our letter on the back. I like getting people’s Christmas letters, but I also like to have something to hang on the bannister with the other cards. So, if other people feel that way, this was a solution to that.

I always do something depicting part of the Christmas story: the manger scene, the shepherds, the wise men, the angels. And I’ve used my grandchildren in photos, sized to fit the front of the card, since the birth of our first granddaughter eleven years ago. Fortunately, the kids are still cooperating. In fact, they are much easier to wrangle at 11 and 8 than they were when they were littler.

This year we learned that a coworker of son Political Sphere had a ranch with a lot of animals. They raise emus and alpacas for profit, but they also have donkeys, dogs, dozens of cats—and two camels.  So we arranged for a photo shoot. It’s a two-hour drive for me, and it was a rainy day, but we were running out of days, so we went on faith. The rain let up just enough late afternoon that we could quickly do the job. Much thanks to the good people who let us come there, and so willingly helped us out.

The large camel, Annie, was very well behaved and played her part well. The younger camel, Drago, was a bit more challenging. We had to keep trying different arrangements, including some photos without him. Then we thought to bring him behind. His reins are being managed by the daughter of the ranch family, ducking down behind our kids. And it turned out that the very last photo I took in that arrangement was the one we used. Other than a bit of color saturation and lighting focus, I didn’t have to do any photo editing.

So I’m sharing that for your Christmas enjoyment.

The Music

One other way I celebrate Christmas is with music. About a decade and a half ago I had the opportunity to lead a choir that combined the congregations in our stake (a geographical area) with a Catholic church located across the street from our main building. That annual combined choir tradition has been going on for something like 27 years now, ever since our building was built and the Catholics invited us to join them. Sometime after my era they got an extraordinary musician, Debbie Siebert, to lead our stake, and also a new music director at the Catholic church, who have both been doing it for over a decade now.

About five years ago, a new stake was created, which separated us from that stake, and we’ve missed singing with the combined choir. But this year, because of COVID-19, there had to be something other than the traditional large choir meeting together. Debbie arranged to do a virtual choir number. This took a huge amount of advance planning, and also a huge amount of work for a video editor. But it also made it so she could invite some of us alumni to participate.

Well ahead of Thanksgiving we were given the music, marked with director’s notes, plus audio tracks of our part with accompaniment and all parts with accompaniment (the two directors did all the voices for those tracks). So we learned the music on our own, recorded ourselves singing it—we had earphones to hear our track, so only our voice alone was recorded—and then we sent that in for editing.

The song is an arrangement of “The First Noel,” one we’ve done before, so not too difficult to learn. However, it has several sections done in unison. That sounds easy—and maybe it is for higher voices, but for lower voices it is often difficult.

I used to sing mezzo, even though I’ve always been a real alto, but I had a very good range, because of training. In high school I didn’t move from soprano to alto until my last semester, when I did the alto solo for a mass we were performing. Singing, at least for me, with allergies and probably just some physical limits to my instrument, is something of a physical workout, especially for the higher notes. But it used to be that I sang frequently enough, with choir or solo performances coming up enough that I kept myself in shape. But we haven’t met for choir since last spring.

I found myself needing to cram my vocal conditioning for the Christmas season into just a couple of weeks. Some days the vocal freedom would allow me to do the high notes (which are not all that high), and other days I got nothing. Or a screech. Too much tension. And all the years of training and practice just didn’t seem to get me there. Besides the allergies and need for daily training, it might just be age; there’s probably a good reason the Tabernacle Choir retires singers at age 60.

We tried scheduling our time to record a full week ahead of our deadline, but I couldn’t do it that day. I just got something that sounded like laryngitis, even though I wasn’t sick. Sleep, food, exercise—everything makes a difference, and I had done something wrong—or didn’t do something I needed to. One day that final week, I did have a voice—but that didn’t coincide with time Mr. Spherical Model could help record me. Then we were within two days of our deadline, so I went ahead and tried. I had to just go silent on the upper half octave. The lower notes sounded pretty good all along, but I just couldn’t get anything higher than an A. It would do, but it felt kind of awful. Like I had failed.

That was Friday. On Saturday morning I woke up clear, and went upstairs to have Mr. Spherical Model record me before I ate or did anything else that would make me lose it. And I did it. I’m glad I’m mixed in with a whole choir of singers, instead of having that performance be a solo, but I think it was a good contribution.

"2020 Virtual Christmas Choir, The First Noel, sung by combined choirs of two faiths"
I am bottom row, second from left in this screenshot

Little vocal miracles like that have been happening to me since junior high. So many times I had to sing while ill, unable to control my voice on my own, but with God’s help, I was able to do the performance. There have also been a few when I sang with adequate training and nothing in the way, but the stage fright caused by so many out-of-control moments have still required that I have to trust God to allow the beautiful sound to come. In fact, this has happened so often that singing is literally a way I come to feel in touch with God.

There’s this part in the movie Chariots of Fire when Eric Liddell, a preacher who is also a runner, says something like, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

That is how I feel about singing. I am accomplished, although not a great performer. But sometimes the sound and ability show such beauty, I can feel His pleasure. Music, and singing especially, brings together body and spirit, which I think is what we have this body to learn to do. Music gives me a sample of God’s joy, which we should plan to experience everlastingly in Heaven.

I hope you enjoy this video, which was made with much love and care. Merry Christmas!

I'm unable to embed, so click on the link below the screenshot, or here, to watch.    

The Holy Day

This year's Christmas card photo,
featuring two of my grandchildren

Merry Christmas!

We’re celebrating a holy day, to honor our Savior Jesus Christ. We’re asked to become more like Him.

So, what does that mean? What does a life look like, when following His example? We can get some of these qualities from scriptures, among them the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, and in I Corinthians 13, which defines His love:

·         Loving

·         Kind

·         Meek

·         Humble

·         Seeking righteousness

·         Merciful

·         Pure in heart (honest, integrity, without guile)

·         Peacemaker

·         Longsuffering

·         Without envy

·         Not easily provoked

·         Seeks truth

·         Avoids iniquity

·         Gentle

·         Self-sacrificing

And we could add a few extras that don’t come up as often:

·        He sees a person’s heart, always knowing what a person really means or intends, and works with that person, as a friend would, to encourage living better.

·        He always knows God’s will and makes that His own will.

·        He combines truth and kindness, but He doesn’t modify the truth to avoid offending.

·        He doesn’t mollify. He doesn’t accept evil, even when He deeply loves the person doing the evil.

Imagine if all the people on earth lived the way Jesus did—or at least were earnestly striving to. On the Spherical Model, Jesus Christ leads to way to Civilization. He moves us ever northward, toward Him.

One of my favorite speakers, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, says, 

Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, “Come unto me,” He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way.[i]

Above all other lives, His birth, life, death, and resurrection, are most worth celebrating.

His birth story shows us beauty in humble circumstances. Many of my favorite Christmas carols tell the story. I’ll share just a few verses.

This is the final verse of the Alfred Burt carol, “We’ll Dress the House with Holly Bright”:

And ye who would the Christ Child greet,

    Your heart also adorn,

That it may be a dwelling meet

   For Him who now is born.

Let all unlovely things give place

To souls bedecked with heavenly grace,

That ye may view His holy face,

   With joy on Christmas morn.

Here’s another Alfred Burt carol, the ending of “Some Children See Him”:

O lay aside each earthly thing,

And with thy heart as offering,

Come worship now the infant King,

‘Tis love that’s born tonight!

I’m noticing endings of a lot of songs. This is the final verse of the Christina Rosetti poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter”:

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
Give my heart.

As a family, we’ve been retelling the nativity story as part of our Christmas Eve tradition for thirty years. We have a script. We dress up in costumes, and we all take part. Every time there’s a new baby, we use a real baby instead of a doll to be the baby Jesus.

My Christmas card is always a depiction of some part of the nativity story. This year we had my new granddaughter and her big brother play the parts of the baby Jesus and a shepherd (above).

Many of my Christmas decorations are depictions of the nativity. I like the goodies and presents and fun as much as the next person, but the real celebration is what is at the core of this holy day, and that is Christ.

If you want a beautiful visual retelling of the Christmas story, spend eight minutes on this video, produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

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[i] Jeffry R. Holland, “Broken Things to Mend,” Ensign, May 2006, p. 71.

It's Christmas!

About a month ago I drove up to visit my grandkids and do a photo shoot for the Christmas card. I pictures something a little different, but we take what we can get when we’re dealing with wild animals and children.

I thought we might have “Mary” sitting on the donkey, and “Joseph” leading it with a rope. But it turned out our donkeys were actually wild. They belong to one of granddaughter, Little Political Sphere 1’s, friends from school. They live in a small Texas town (one elementary school), and the friends live on some acreage down the road, where they raise some calves for sale, but otherwise work in normal in-town jobs. The donkeys lived on the property when they bought it well over a decade ago. 

The one in the photo, Jack, was tame enough to come up and eat carrots out of your hand. So we fed him a lot. And took what we could get. I would have liked a different angle, but then we’d have had to move the truck, and we didn’t know if we’d get the donkey back. The other donkey—more standard looking, with the cross on her back—took one carrot from my very large son. That was more than she usually does.

In most of the photos Little PS1 was so thrilled to be feeding the donkey that she had a huge smile that didn’t say “I’m weary from traveling all the way from Nazareth.” And we were limited by Little PS2’s attention span. But it was a fun time, with a photo good enough for our purposes.

Not sure what to do for next year’s photo.

I’ve been enjoying the music of the season as well—I always do. Besides the choir, and playing with my dulcimer jam group at a few parties, I’ve had my Pandora station set to Pentatonix holiday. I like more and more of their music.

Favorites have included their “Little Drummer Boy” and “Mary, Did You Know?” This year the one that got my attentions is “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

One more I’ve enjoyed this year is Peter Hollens and 300 friends (including BYU’s Vocal Point) doing Carol of the Bells. This fun version makes me like this song again.

Real Christmas

I love the Christmas season. I love the reason for it. I love the music. I love the anticipation, and the getting together, and the special food, and the decorations, and the lights.

We’re having a good time here at the Spherical Model household with everyone home at the same time for a few days. It’s hard to beat that—especially when grandchildren are involved.

I’ve noticed that one of the things I enjoy is music that brings to life what the first Christmas must have been like. So here are a few musical glimpses of the long ago night.

Mary Did You Know?

This has been a favorite song for more than a decade. I sing it a lot at home, and performed it once. I love the verse that says, “Mary, did you know… when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?” And I used another line to describe this year’s Christmas card photo: “Mary, did you know…that the sleeping child you’re holding is the Great I Am?” We used daughter Social Sphere and her baby, when he was a week old, to illustrate.

“Mary, Did You Know?” is on my favorite Kathleen Battle (soprano)/Christopher Parkening (guitar) CD, Angels’ Glory.  This CD from 1996 has been playing in my car for several months a year for a decade so far. “Mary, Did You Know?” is the first piece on it. For me this may be the quintessential version.

But this year there were several new versions worth hearing.

I’m not a regular viewer of American Idol guy, but someone linked this on Facebook, and it really was worth hearing Jordan Smith perform “Mary, Did You Know?” earlier this month.

I like any Christmas song done by a capella quintet Pentatonix, and almost anything else they do. (They’re one of my favorite Pandora stations for Christmas.) Their “Mary, Did You Know?” is a great addition to my collection. 

There was a great list of video music—one a day for 12 days—in which YouTube stars introduced the Mormon.org video “A Savior Is Born”. Two of these were renditions of “Mary, Did You Know?,” and I loved them both. One was a capella solo phenomenon Peter Hollens. 

The other was Evie Clair, whom I hadn’t heard before. She’s very young, even younger than the real Mary. But her performance was touching, and I’m hoping to see more of her in the future. 

Breath of Heaven

Another song that takes us back to that nativity with real feelings is “Breath of Heaven.” I sang this in church one year. But Amy Grant’s version is probably the definitive one. I especially like the verse that says,

Do you wonder as you watch my face

If a wiser one should have had my place?

But I offer all I am

For the mercy of your plan

Help me be strong

This video uses images from the movie The Nativity. It’s quite beautiful.

Little Drummer Boy

This song doesn’t exactly fit into the “what was it really like to be there” category. And it hasn’t always been a favorite. But a couple of years ago, when I heard Pentatonix do "The Little Drummer Boy," it became new and brilliant. 

This year, as part of those 12 days, Alex Boyé did an Africanized, very upbeat version that she makes me happy.

It was the most momentous beginning in the history of the world; so we celebrate. Merry Christmas to all!

Music of the Season

The news of the day has been about Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson being suspended from his own family’s reality show on A&E, because he answered a direct question about his opinion on the definition of marriage, in an interview to be published in GQ Magazine. There is a firestorm of response about that. A couple of my favorites are Shawn Rogers’ commentary (available on Not on This Watch Facebook page 12-19-2013 ) and PJ Media’s Bryan Preston. If you’ve read my Defense of Marriage collection, you probably know where I stand. Which doesn’t make me a hater either—just a civilized thinker.

So, rather than spend more time on that just before Christmas, I’m going to spend time sharing something much more pleasant: Christmas Music.

Music is a pretty big part of my life. I play piano and organ well enough for church purposes. I lead the church choir. I play mountain dulcimer, and taught that instrument in an adult education class through the community college this fall. The little jam group I attend weekly, which includes dulcimers as well as guitars, mandolins, a string bass, banjo, and flutes, has performed as a service several times this month. I also occasionally play guitar and recorder (wooden flute, soprano and alto). And I sing. To paraphrase Buddy the Elf, “Singing is my favorite!” Or lines from “The Holly and the Ivy”: “…The playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir.” It’s what I do. I sing at home and in the car. Sometimes in public.

Christmas is a music season. So I thought I’d put together a little online concert here—some of my current favorite Christmas pieces, for no other purpose that to feel what it is to feel the Spirit of Christ while we’re spending time celebrating His very special life.

This first one, is a capella, written by Aaron Edson. I first heard it in two places, in late 2005. Edson wrote it for a scripture video series called Liken the Scriptures (very fun series, with kids imagining how things must have been, with lots of music). This one is sung by the shepherds in The First Christmas. It was also included on BYU’s Vocal Point 2004 album, “Standing Room Only.” Vocal Point is BYU’s national award-winning men’s a capella ensemble. So I’ve been a fan since years before they became famous on the TV show The Sing Off.

In 2006 I contacted Aaron Edson to see if I could get the music for a concert I was conducting. He was at that time working to get it into print and sent me, at no cost, a pdf of the music along with permission to use it for our church concert. What a great guy! We had a group of eight or so perform the ensemble piece for our 2006 concert. This video is excerpted from The First Christmas.

 

Since we can’t get enough of men’s a capella, here’s a bonus of Vocal Point doing the perfect version of “12 Days of Christmas.” (Harvard and Indiana University men’s ensembles have done this as well.)

 

Do you know about The Piano Guys? Hurray for the internet making performances possible and sharable in ways they never were before! The Piano Guys is a combination of pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson and some other musicians who happen to also be extraordinarily skilled at video production. So these guys do videos of their music in various places. Once they airlifted a grand piano onto a dangerously high mesa in southern Utah, where they’re from. Recently they performed on the Great Wall of China. I’m a big fan—got to see them in concert last summer when they stopped in Houston on tour.

Their newest Christmas video is “Angels We Have Heard on High,” using the piano in ways you might never have seen—unless you’ve seen these guys before. I encourage you to go to the link. Watch everything they’ve done! But the video I’m including is from a year ago, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” a Mormon Channel video including them and their music in a beautiful depiction of the nativity and Christ’s life. (It looks like it was filmed on location in the Holy Land, but is actually a beautifully done media studio set.) I watched this every day for a month last year—well into January.

 

The year that Vocal Point was on The Sing Off, that year’s winner was Pentatonix. I was disappointed my heroes didn’t win, but I’ve come to really like this group. This year their version of “Little Drummer Boy” is my new favorite of that song. It’s no longer the same song I sang in elementary school.

 

Lindsey Sterling is another internet video star. She’s a violinist who dances (dubstep) while she plays. She’s a delightful elfin/pixie-looking young woman, and makes use of that, totally decked out as an elf in “Celtic Carol.” But the piece I'm sharing is her heart-wrenchingly beautiful version of “What Child Is This.”

 

Lindsey has done videos with both The Piano Guys (a very fun "Mission Impossible" spoof) and Pentatonix  (a post-apocalyptic looking "Radioactive.”) She grew up in Arizona, it turns out in the same neighborhood where Mr. Spherical Model’s brother lives. Her dad is a close family friend. I mentioned this to my son Political Sphere, who used to live there too, and he said, “Oh, yeah. I know who that is.” I was a fan well before I learned she was a regular person just down the street, except for when she’s touring the world.

There are others I’d like to share, but are less easily linked. So I’ll end with a new favorite I discovered this year. My dulcimer group introduced me to this one, and we’ve already performed it several times. I’ve gotten ahead for next year and ordered it for my church choir to sing. The link is for audio only, but it’s a heavenly three minutes, called “Shines the Light.”

May your Christmas be full of beautiful music!