This Christmas, I had several opportunities for making music.  Music allows me to worship God more than any other medium.  I worship when I sing and when I listen to music.

The Lewis Center United Methodist Church Choir presented a cantata this year.  Cantatas are a beautiful way of making music.  They also seem to be less common than they were.  Lewis Center had not done a cantata since 2019.  2020 was Covid and the church had just started worshiping indoors again.  2021 and 2022 were spent building the choir back up again.  So, finally, this year they were able to have a cantata.

I love to sing in the cantata and am very thankful that they have Saturday morning practices.  We had about 30 in the group that sang for the cantata and the practices were lots of fun.  I have been getting to know more people at church and choir practice is an excellent way to do that.  I really like the choir director, Tamara.  She is a perfectionist and we sometimes spent an hour on one song.  But, by the time of the performance, the choir sounds pretty good.

This year the cantata was Lloyd Larson’s “A New and Glorious Morn.”  It had a lot of traditional Christmas hymns, interspersed with a few original pieces or unusual arrangements.  We presented it at both services on December 17 and you can watch it here.

On December 19 I had another opportunity for making music.  Mom and I played together for a music program at Wedgewood Estates, where Mom and Dad live.  Mom regularly plays warm-up music for the program.  She and I practiced together several times and added cello-piano duets for the music.  It is a very low-stress atmosphere and the people who attend love to sing along to the familiar carols.

Part of making music at Christmas is singing along to my Christmas playlist.  I love to put on the playlist when I am baking cookies or weaving.  One of my best days in December was spent bopping around the kitchen singing to the Christmas music, pulling warm cookies out of the oven, and working a puzzle while I waited for the oven timer to go off.

Making music is a wonderful way to worship God.  Christmas is even better because it offers more of those opportunities.  I think we sing more in December than we do in any other month of the year.