Carol of the Bells

Original date: December 9, 2010

By far one of my favorite songs, "Carol of the Bells" brings to mind crisp cold air and lights reflecting off the snow. In Texas, we do not see these things very often; in fact, in my lifetime, I can recall only 2-3 times that all these magical elements came together. It was not at Christmas time either.

The closest experience in Texas I remember is standing in line in Burnet to enter Bethlehem. The smells from inside the walled city filter outward - wax, hay, baking bread. When I close my eyes and take a deep breath, I can almost transport myself to a Norman Rockwell ideal.

My brother asked me last night if I liked Christmas or something........maybe it is the decorations, the constant music and only watching Christmas movies on cable. It is more than that, too. It is the reading of the Christmas story in Luke, the advent symbols, the holly and ivy..........and mostly thinking about how one small precious baby came into the world to save humanity. What an awesome gift for mankind.

These are all the things I think about when I hear "Carol of the Bells"

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I stumbled upon this 11 years after I originally wrote it. I was searching for a specific blog post and noticed several older posts needed some updated links; many pictures and videos are now broken. Here in 2022, vlogs are more seen, and as I begin to transition to that, I need to archive my years of blog posts to save them.

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