Christmas Music

Today my baby smiled 115 times, and then she wrote a symphony. The instrumentation was as follows: a low hum of burps, a quiet rumble of flatulence, a series of boisterous laughs, a few soft cries, some whimpers on her way to sleep, grunts while lying on her belly, a great flood of infant speech, and a few shimmering tones of true singing.

To reward her (and ourselves), my wife and I bought our first Christmas album as parents. A quick visit to iTunes and our home was suffused with ethereal world music by Anthony Miles – “Sleep of the Innocent” and “Angels and Children.” This meant a few things. It meant the instantaneous rebirth in my baby’s father of the innocent wonder of Christmas. It meant having a home that felt more like a home than any I’ve lived in. Lastly, it meant that when I drove to the supermarket after dinner and saw wreaths (and smelled them) for sale along with Christmas trees, still a week before Thanksgiving, I was ready. I was psyched.

May you find this spirit, too.