A Favorite Carol

By
Happy Christmas Eve!


I'd like to share a favorite Christmas carol which I've loved since I was about four years old.  I remember sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of my parents' hi-fi, listening to Julie Andrews' glorious voice.





The Wexford Carol

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending His beloved Son.


With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas day;
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.


With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the Babe to find,
And as God's angel had foretold,
They did our Savior Christ behold.


With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas day;
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.


You can listen here, if you like.


Enjoy this special day and night, leading into the Christmas celebration tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Way to Clear Clutter (Plus 12 Steps to a Successful Spending Freeze)

By
Image
A friend asked me to help her clear her clutter, and as I walked into her house I thought of that statistic which says that the average American home contains 300,000 items . That number seems impossible, but this house made me a believer. There are a lot of ways to begin decluttering, but the tower of delivery boxes and shopping bags in my friend's entryway gave me a clue about what might be most important for her. Maybe it's the most important step for you too. The essential first step You aren't going to succeed at decluttering unless you take a hard look at your consumption habits.  That's because decluttering is as much about what comes in as what goes out. The best way to clear clutter is to reduce what you bring in . Decluttering takes commitment and discipline, and a good way to begin developing both of those qualities is with a spending fast .  You need to stop buying everything except necessities:  food, gas, personal care items, and things you need for clea
Read more

Downsize Now: Why You Should Start Death Cleaning Today

By
Image
Okay, you've tidied, and you've organized, and you have a lot of cute bins, and you even fold your socks and underwear differently. But you want to declutter for good. You want a solution to over-accumulation that lasts. Enter the Swedish art of death cleaning, or as they call it, döstädning . (Basically just pronounce everything, like you do with my last name.) Contrary to your first impression, death cleaning isn't dark or morbid. It's a very practical way of tidying like there's no tomorrow, because someday there won't be . Now, I hope you and I are going to live for many more years. And I'm certain that we're going to buy more stuff. But we have better things to do than box things up and shuffle them around, sort, clean, and spend way too much time organizing our sock drawers. We aren't infinite. Death cleaning is a mindset that helps you realize that you don't have forever to get your life in order. And if you don't do it – well, have yo
Read more

6 Easy (and Possibly Surprising) Ways to Keep Your Home Clutter-Free

By
Image
There's a reason you decluttered, and it's not so you could let clutter take over again. Maintenance is every bit as important as decluttering in the first place. I'm not an extreme minimalist, but my husband and I live very comfortably in our 800-square-foot apartment, with three young grandsons who visit and play there regularly and even stay overnight sometimes. We own art and books and have hobbies and toys, but it's all very manageable. It's easy to clean, and it's comfortable and welcoming when we come home or if we relax around the house for an evening or the weekend. If you long to create your own minimalist home, it's important to realize that living with less requires a shift in mindset. If you don't change the way you think and feel about possessions, you won't stay clutter-free for long. Meanwhile, here are maintenance tips I've found helpful, with some that might surprise you. Related article: How to Think Like a Minimalist   6 maint
Read more

20 Things You Probably Own Too Many Of (and what to do with them)

By
Image
Do I really need a dozen towels?  Does my husband need 19 tee shirts?  Does your house need seven clocks, your kitchen eight spatulas, or your tool box three hammers? We need multiples of some things, but at a certain point "a few" becomes "too many."  Things accumulate, and we veer into clutter territory .  Clutter steals our time and attention, and makes our home environment seem out of control.  Check your home for these items, and see how many you can declutter this week. 1.  Sheets Unless you have babies or potty-training children, you probably don't need more than two sets of sheets per bed.  I actually have one high quality set per bed, and save time and space by simply putting them back on after wash day. Donate old sheets to animal shelters, DIY a kids' play tent , sew up some drawstring bags for craft kits or gift bags, or cut the sheets up for cleaning cloths. 2.  Towels It's not necessary to use a new towel after every bath or shower.  When y
Read more

6 Things to Ditch Before They Become a Burden for Your Kids

By
Image
My dad saved film canisters of old Laurel and Hardy movies, thinking they'd be valuable someday. Nope. My mom saved piles of costume jewelry, thinking my sister and I (or our daughters) would want them. Nope. It used to be common for parents to pass furniture, china, silver, and other "family heirlooms" to their children, and some Baby Boomers are no doubt planning to do the same. In reality, these pieces may be more of a burden than a blessing for heirs, who do not want them and need to somehow dispose of them. It might be hard to learn that most of the stuff we value isn't valuable . Even the things we worry about the most, the things we think are so good that we hardly use them for fear of breaking or staining them, have little or no resale value. The market has been flooded with castoffs such as china cabinets, entertainment centers, tea sets, crystal, collectible figurines, and more. Millennials, the next generation of buyers, don't want them. After all, Mill
Read more