Although we may not have looked like the Christmas card images of carolers, visiting neighbors and singing Christmas carols during the holiday season has been indelibly inked into my memories. The music has always touched me and given me great joy as a girl, even to this day. It's not because I sang well, but I enjoyed singing nonetheless and the cameraderie with friends was unforgettable. Back then, I relished going to church for the midnight service and midnight snacks afterwards. Even though there was no snow, I even enjoyed the shivers of being out in the cold so late at night with the festiveness in the air and the promise of something warm and delicious at the end of the evening.
These are a few of the things that I would like my girls to have a taste of. I don't know that things will still be exactly the same, I'm sure plenty have changed in the last thirty years or so, but my hopes are high that a little of the magic can still be found. With the help of extended family and friends, I think it just may be possible.
I was really looking forward to sharing with the girls the tradition of Christmas carollers while we were in the Philippines. I was hoping maybe they would even learn to sing a Filipino Christmas carol or two.
They did enjoy listening to the numerous children and church groups who graced our porch steps nightly, serenading us with their renditions of Christmas songs old and new, in English and Pilipino. They were particularly tickled by the bands of little kids from the neighborhood who, after being rewarded with a few coins and some candy, always ended their performance with a rousing rendition of "tenk you, tenk you, tenk you berry much tenk you!!"
Much to my chagrin, my girls did learn a Filipino Christmas song.....this one:
