The W in Christmas (shared with me by Sol Cartier)

The "W" in Christmas

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations -extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.

So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.

Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snow caps upon their heads. Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".

The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W". Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"CHRISTWAS LOVE" And, I believe, He still is.

Time for a Change

Bought a different (not new) car today. It's an Audi TT. We traded in Julie's 2002 Maxima. She will drive the Murano and this will be my car.


I've never owned a sports car but this is a lot of fun to drive. Although it only has a four cylinder engine, it's got a lot of zip.


More than can be said for it's proud owner.

All Saints Day Fair

This Saturday was All Saints Day. We had a worship service and then a fun afternoon.


Kids dressed as saints. Above "St. Patrick" shows off his snakes and "St. Frances' friend whose name I forget" shows off her animals.


We arranged for a huge bounce house for the kids.


And our diocesan church camp, located in Granbury, brought horses for kids and adults to ride around the campus.

Sunday Lunch with Erik

It's been a few weeks since we hung out with Michael, Cheryl, and Erik. Erik has grown quite a bit and is a lot more "interactive" than last time together.


He's teething..


And he's losing some of his baby hair as you can tell in this picture.


He's also taken to eating solid food. We enjoyed our visit but it was too short.

Society of Spectacle

Poster on Althouse blog nails it:

"This just reinforces my ongoing impression that we've been living out a satire for the past year or two. We elected a callow nobody as President on the strength of a few vacuous speeches. The healthcare debate -- driving trillions of dollars in anticipated future expenditures -- got turned around by comments someone scrawled on Facebook, and now the Nobel Peace Prize committee has decided to award prizes for good intentions. It's like no one's even serious about anything anymore. None of it matters. It's the Society of the Spectacle."

Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis, a day when many churches, including ours, invites pet and animal owners to bring their beasts for a blessing.


This was Katie's first time to go to church. While we were waiting, she intimidated several other dogs in attendance, barked loudly when anything happened, and generally acted like most parishioners do. After prayers and a short homily, care-givers were invited forward with their pets to receive the sprinkling of holy water and blessing from the priest.


Katie survived the ritual, but thinks it's a lot more fun getting wet in the sprinkler.

Opus 5232 - Part 3

The pipe organ I play at Good Shepherd Acton, Moeller Opus 5232, was built in 1928 for Central Methodist Church in Fort Worth where it was first installed. That congregation had worshiped with a smaller organ they had used for more than a decade. The new organ and wind chest were positioned in the loft at the rear of the sanctuary (as it is in our own church). Larry Bourse of Fort Worth remembers as a teenager in the 1940’s hearing the pipe organ when Boy Scout Troop #42 held special services in the building.

Central Methodist Church, College Avenue, Ft Worth, TX

In the 1960’s Central Methodist Church sold their downtown location and relocated to the South Hulen area. They became Overton Park Methodist. Carol Roszell, Methodist Church archivist, unearthed a couple of references to the instrument from the early records of the Overton Park Church. The organist for many years was Marie Balch Wright. Jack Kyle Daniels writes in his memoirs (A Shot of Jack Daniels, p.117) that Mrs. Wright was a well-known piano teacher in Fort Worth whose students consistently won the National Piano Guild Competition.

Records show that in 1969 there was a lot of discussion about moving the Moeller organ to the new location, but the cost of relocating the old instrument was equal to purchasing a new one. Some of the best pipes, chimes, and bells were taken from the 1928 instrument to be incorporated into their new organ.

The console and wind chest gathered dust and pigeon droppings in the unused building. Trinity Episcopal Church purchased the property in 1972 and two years later turned it over to the Panther Boys’ Club, a branch of the Boys’ Clubs of America. The Boys Club converted the sanctuary of the old church into a boxing arena. Mr. Bourse remembers the old organ in the loft of the church was filthy and covered with paint splatter. They cut what he termed the “umbilical cord” that had connected the console to the wind chest in order to make room in the loft for the place where the officials judged the boxing matches.

In 1975 the Boys Club ran an ad in the Fort Worth paper.

1928 Moeller pipe organ in undetermined condition.
Located at the Panther Boys’ Club on College Ave.

The ad was seen by Genie Guynn who was studying organ and thought how wonderful it would be to have a pipe organ of her own. She contacted Wirt Norris who was President of the Panther’s Boys Club and a member at Trinity Episcopal where Ms. Guynn served as a volunteer assistant organist and choir director. Mr. Norris gave her what was left of the organ. She paid $1,000 to move the old organ to her home where the long process of restoration began.

(To be continued…)