-Christmas Light Hunt and Carols

Every year we go on a Christmas light hunt on Christmas Eve.  We dress in pajamas and slippers and take thermoses of hot chocolate (and sometimes cookies or doughnuts) and sing Christmas carols as loud as possible while driving around looking at lights.  Every year there comes the point when we have sung every Christmas song that we know really well and start in on the ones that we think we know, but really don't.

There is "Do You Hear What I Hear".....I love this song, in seventh grade I sang it in a Christmas program.....but with 11 months of not thinking about it each year, I inevitably forget the words between the lamb and the sheperd boy and the mighty king, I can't remember who is speaking or singing or praying or bringing gold. 

Once I get to the point in the song where I can no longer remember the right words (and Thomas is no help because he can't remember the words to any song) Katarina, loudly so she can be heard over me, obeys her own personal Christmas carol rule - when in doubt of words, sing "Joy to the World".

We sing "Rudolph"....but this song has it's own set of problems.  You know how you sing this song and then you do the echo part???  example: "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer Reindeer Had a very shiny nose Like a light-bulb..."we do just fine until we get to the line, "Then all the reindeer loved him Loved him and they shouted out with glee_________" <--- this is the problem part, we all know that the echo part to this line is "Yippee!" but Thomas is convinced that it is Glee.....as in "and they shouted out with glee Glee!"  (It doesn't even make sense that they would shout out "glee", does it?)  After screaming singing joyfully "Glee" and "Yippee" at each other for about five minutes, Katarina finishes out the song for us at a level of loudness never before contained within the confines of a single vehicle. 

At this point we sing some non-controversial songs like "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"

One of Katarina's favorite songs is "The Little Drummer Boy" which is fun to sing, but in my mind I always imagine the story....here is Mary, 14 years old or so, she has just rode for days on a donkey, gone through hours of unmedicated labor in a barn with no one to help except Joseph, and now she finally has a sleeping baby and here comes the drummer boy asking if he can play his drum!?!?!?  What the crap?  The donkeys and cows aren't loud enough, you want to add drumming into the mix?  There is no way that "Mary nodded... ba rum ba bum bum"  The whole drumming for the baby part kind of ruins the moment for me. 

Then, it happens, Thomas' favorite Christmas Song...."The Twelve Days of Christmas".  That is right, my husband who can't remember the lyrics to songs that he hears every day has decided that his favorite song to sing once a year is the one with the hardest to remember (and the most) words in the history of song writing.  We do really well through the first few days, partridges, turtle doves, french hens.  The calling birds always take a few tries to remember, and then five golden rings always save us - sung long and at the top of our lungs, "On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five Golden Rings!!!  Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!!"

After the fifth day comes the sixth (I know, surprising, isn't it?  Aren't you happy that you came by my blog today to learn this important bit of information?).....and the sixth day brings memory problems.....Thomas sings words trying to remember what the right ones are
Thomas-"On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....six swans.....six lords a leaping"
Tracie-"No"
Thomas-"six maids, no, six ladies singing"
Tracie-"No"
Thomas-"on the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six drummers drumming" (what is with all of the drumming at Christmastime?)
Tracie-"No"
Thomas-"on the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six french hens"
Tracie-"No, that was three"
Thomas-"six pipers piping"
Tracie-"No"
Thomas-"on the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....."
Katarina interjects loudly-"Six Crazy Heads"

Ahhh! Christmas fun!  When in doubt of the words, and after your parents have already said no more "Joy to the World", make up your own words!  It is funnier that way anyway!