Tag Archives: Christmas

Greensleeves – New Video

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Yesterday morning I was playing breakfast music for the dogs on the piano. Yes, I do that every day – Idina sometimes refuses to eat unless I play the piano for her! Anyway, I started to improvise an accompaniment for a waltz. I whistled along and discovered I was whistling Greensleeves! So I went up, turned on my music equipment and recorded it. OK, I had three meetings and wrote a report while I was recording (!) so it took several hours, but it was less than an hour on the keyboards from the idea to finished recording. i.e., no rehearsal, just picking a sound and recording.

(No singing, so no terrible voice in this one ;) )

Anyway, here it is.

(Click here if you don’t see the video below)

Continue reading →

New Song and Video – Silver Bells Played on the Radio

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Part of my ride home from Cape Cod on Saturday was in the cold pouring rain. There were Christmas songs by indie rock bands on the radio. I thought “I need to write a Christmas song!”

In the mean time, there were so many jerks on the road that evening, and one super huge jerk tailgating me for miles. At times I could see his ultra angry face. I really thought he was going to pull out a machine gun and start shooting at any moment.

By the time I got home I had all of the words and the melody for a new, dark, Christmas song.

I played around with it Sunday morning and then recorded all of the instrument parts Sunday afternoon and evening. I recorded the vocals after work on Monday and did the video Monday evening.

OK, a lot of issues – it was a rush job! Truthfully, I don’t know if I can sing any better – my voice is always bad, so… Anyway, here it is Tuesday and I am sharing it with you. (It is dark, but with hope at the end.)

Continue reading →

Angel #writephoto

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christmas-angel

Photo by Sue Vincent

Emma looked around in wonder.  The world was both familiar and yet so changed!

A noise grabbed her attention.  Several Star Wars storm troopers were header her way!

“I’ll take care of them.”

Buzz Lightyear come out from behind the giant tree, laser beams flashing.

“Run, little girl, while I finish up here. To infinity and beyond!”

Emma turned.  Where should she go?

“This way, Emma.”

The voice was calm and soothing.

An angel! Continue reading →

The Gift #tanka

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Dark presents

Rattle, roll and sway
I have gifts to grant away
Are you good or naught?
You push as far as you can
To figure out what I bought

What’s the sound it makes
Will it tinkle when it breaks?
Careful how you swing
Is it better to present
Or does ”getting” make you sing?

***

This was written for Colleen’s weekly poetry challenge.  This week the words were Give and Shake, but only synonyms are allowed.  I did a couple of rhyming “tankas”, sort of, almost ;)

Light #writephoto

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Photo by Sue Vincent

It was just after the first real snow of the year. A couple of wet inches, which might be gone by noon or may last all winter, greeted us.  It sure was pertty, that untracked white. I smiled at the sight, though dreaded the cold winter ahead.

A chill ran through my bones as I thought of last winter.  Not everyone lives through winter, see? At least not out beyond the frontier. Yeah, it was pertty an’ all, and I was as happy as the others, but…

“I say winter is here, no matter the calendar tells us. Let’s get our tree today,” Pa said as we stood around gaping the changed world.

The young‘nes whooped.

My mind went back to that cold, earthen mound.

“Oh, what fer?” I asked.

I remembered Christmas in Illinois and the days we actually had real gifts.  Now it was all just stuff Pa made and all. The young‘nes didn’t know no better. And this year, of all years…

Pa frowned his earth stopping frown. Continue reading →

The Angels in the Tree

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Albert, Grace and Josephine, come here and let me tell you a story!  Well, I won’t spend too much time with this story, but I do want to make sure that you get a bit of time in the spot light.  Yes, I know, the two canines who shall not be named in this post monopolize the four-leg time on my blog…  OK, Albert, I know, you are a three-leg, but you have had a few posts about just you! (There were more than just those two…)

Ah-hum, so.

Once upon a time there were two cats, Continue reading →

Pealing Back the Years – #Haibun #Senryu

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house-church-a

Pealing back the Years

I am walking through the village, fighting a cold wind.  Random flakes are stinging my face.  What’s that?  Ah, it’s the clarion sounds from the church reverberating through the town.  A chill goes down my spine as I remember the sounds of yesteryear and for the moment I am that child once again, out in the cold to pass time as I anxiously await the holiday.  The warmth of the special day glows inside.  The excitement is building, until that last echo tolls off of the distant hills.  It is quiet again, and I walk on in the too chilly present.

I hear them ringing
Sound from a distant tower
Chimes of bygone years

–

No, that title is not a typo ;)  This was written for Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge.  The key words today were “Bells” and “Past”.  Following her suggestion, I didn’t use the words, I used only synonyms.  In the past I would call the poem part a “Haiku”, but I’m not sure, so I called it a “Senryu”.  I may be wrong….

 

I Want Your Smiles! #weeklysmile Reminder Christmas Edition

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window-evening-snow

Just a short note today :)  I took this picture the other day at sunset.  I missed the solstice – this is Dec 22, but it was pretty close to the shortest day of the year. For some reason the picture is much more colorful than reality, which is both good and bad.  There is a special quality to the air on these short days, a quality that cannot be described in words, and the scene out of my kitchen window was so beautiful.  The phone photo captures a little of it, but doesn’t have that crisp clarity, that ethereal beauty that can only be seen this time of year. Continue reading →

Christmas, 24x7x365

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Sad Brady

Sad Brady

Once again
It’s that time of year
When on every lip
Is “Be of good cheer!”
We say peace on Earth
And to all good will
With high spirits
Our hearts do fill
But why can’t we do this
All year round?
Why only at Christmas
Do these feeling abound?
For every day
We should do what we can
To help every woman,
Child and man
Every effort should go
To make Earth more like heaven
By acting with compassion
Twenty Four by Seven
So start today
To help all alive
And hold out a hand
On all Three Sixty Five
— — — — —
I wrote this for Solveig to use in her Advent Calendar, which she did on Sunday. I was going to repost her version, but I wanted to make sure the whole thing is on my blog – I like it and want all of the words here :) But, since I wrote it for her blog, please go visit! Go see what everyone else did for her Calendar! There’s some great stuff this year! There was last year too :)  (Yes, I did two posts for the calendar, though Sunday was a shared day with several contributors.)

The Longest Day by Trent McDonald | Day 16 | Advent Calendar 2016

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I wrote a story for Solveig to use in her advent calendar. Check it out! While you are there, look at the other marvelous contributions by other bloggers! As with last year’s calendar, this has been a fantastic community event showcasing some of the best of WP.

Solveig Werner

Advent Calendar 2016

Day 16 | Advent Calendar

The Longest Day by Trent McDonald

I had been awake for quite a while, staring into the blackness in a place outside of time, when I heard my brother whisper, “You awake?”

“Yeah,” I answered.  “What time is it?”

“Don’ know.  It’s still dark, though.”

We slowly got up and pressed up against the door.  A small sound was heard just outside the door, in the hall.  Silently and efficiently we threw on some clothes.  We didn’t bother to turn on a light, so it was dark in the bedroom.  But that didn’t matter, anything and everything was fine for this special day.

My brother cracked the door a smidgen.

“Shhhh,” my oldest sister said from across the hall.

My other sister came out of her room and tip toed down to our group.

“It’s about a quarter after six,” my oldest sister said.  “Remember last year when we got them up…

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