Last night, I experienced a great event – LA Zoo’s LA Lights.  The zoo, opened after nightfall, was lit up with loads of holiday lights.  The place felt magical, with the hint of joy and celebration about.  The night was cool, rain threatened, and the air had the chill that reminded you what time of year it was.  The pathways were filled with young and all, and there wasn’t one that wasn’t happy to be there.

It reminded me of an album I keep on my phone just for this time of year.  A Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keiller’s “It’s Christmas Again”.  Rather than try to steal the concepts, I will give you a few lines stolen directly from the album.  Mostly from the track fittingly called “Christmas Street”.

It’s Christmas, and our hearts are open
to the time when all ages and all times meet as one.
We’re the parents, and we are the children
Childhood was the country we had to leave behind,
and at Christmas, we get to go back and try to speak our first language.

We aren’t so emotion, God’s frozen people is who we are
But on Christmas Eve we sit in church with bows of pine in the candlelight
And the choir sings from in back
And we lean forward
And we cry, if we have it in us

Christmas is when we gather up everything good in our life
all the warmth and the light and all the good memories
and we draw it close
and enjoy it
as much as we are able to

It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, it’s cold – but then again it’s Christmas
Anyway, cold is a stimulus to sound thinking, you know that.
There is nothing like cold to bring you back to reality, and the reality is …
we are very lucky