Christmas Carols

Fiorella plays the piano for about fifteen minutes a day to keep up her never-that-great-and-now-fading keyboard skills, and during the holiday season, she concentrates on traditional carols. Her favorites are Good King Wenceslas,  Silent Night, We Three Kings, Joy to the World, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Noel, Away in a Manger, It Came upon a Midnght Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Deck the Halls, Angels We Have Heard on High, Go Tell It on the Moutain, What Child is This, and O Come All Ye Faithful. Her mother's favorites were O Christmas Tree and I saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. And if you're wondering why Fiorella is reporting this information, it is so if Baby reads it when she grows up, she will get to know both her grandmother and her great-grandmother as more than names on a page.

Finger Practice

While Austin son and his wife were at the house decorating the tree, Fiorella started thinking about "O Christmas Tree" and "Deck the Hall" so of course she pulled out the carols book and headed toward the piano. She hadn't played any of the carols for a year, but now was the time to start practicing. Surprisingly, her fingers half-remembered the notes, and she even sang a little. This is going to be a good Christmas,

Attack of the Machines

Fiorella is accustomed to computers attacking her.  The first mortal blow she can remember was many years ago when she took weeks recording the Christmas carols she had written, not by note, onto an expensive program Husband had bought her for her birthday.  The program produced sound, and she envisioned herself listening to her compositions in eterna.  But soon afterwards, the program rejected her, insisting she was illegal. Two years later, when Fio had to switch computers, despite Husband's assurances everything would transfer, all her music disappeared.

And that's the way it's gone through the years.  Computers have played Fiorella false, and now her jumpy Toshiba has lost the ability to connect with the internet.  Click, her trusty repair shop, says it's not going to be a quick fix, which means Husband will have to transfer all her documents to the upstairs desktop, which scares her because she understands mortal blows.

Wish Fio well.

Holiday Frenzy

Santa's not the only one who's making a list and checking it twice.  Fiorella makes a new list every day from the remnants of yesterday's list, then checks it hourly.  The cards are out, the one gift that had to be mailed is on its way, the tree is decorated except for the tinsel icicles, the snowflakes went on the windows last week, and most of the gifts are bought.  Today Fiorella plans to hang her collection of  fruit and vegetable ornaments from the dining room greenery, arrange the multiple creches on the buffet, festoon the light over the dining table, and add bows, birds, and butterflies to everything she's already decorated.  She'll also go out at some time to pick up the manicure salon gift card daughter wants, locate tinsel icicles, and check out WalMart for gingerbread mix

Oh, and did she mention that she's been practicing carols on the piano for the past six weeks?  (Not that you could tell.)

In Heaven, Fiorella Will Sing

Fiorella's given up on reviving the violin, but she plays the piano about ten minutes every day. Right now she's reviewing Christmas carols.  Not that she gets any better, but she doesn't get any worse. 
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Husband comes from a musical family, especially on his mother's side.  She was an excellent pianist, and her brother led a successful band way back when.  He even made a couple of recordings, which Daughter was thrilled to find on the internet.
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All three of Fio's kids are musical.  Older son concentrates on instruments, especially the bass guitar, while younger son and daughter enjoy karaoke, all of which makes Fio very happy.  She always hoped her children would discover the joy of music.


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