Shopping and singing: favorite SmithsoupMamma Christmas memories

http:/There were two distinct memories which came to my mind when I read this FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MEMORY Mc Linky header; quite different from each other but so special , each in its own way. One Christmas probably 15 years ago, we had extra money, not a lot, but extra...back then "enough" was "rare" and "extra" was unheard of, but we did. We also had friends who were on some hard really HARD times. He'd been injured at work, they had a housefull of little children, like me, she was frequently pregnant. Charlie and I decided to "Christmas them" in secret. We shopped for clothing, toys that we knew those children didn't have but would likely enjoy, a new Christmas outfit for my friend herself, and several weeks worth of groceries including lots of fruit which I knew they really loved. THE DILEMMA? How to get the secret giving done in secret?? I was leaving a grocery store at that time and saw my friend pulling in with all her kiddos in tow. ZIPPED HOME, I got "Christmas" and took a gamble that she had not locked her vehicle. Quickly, SO QUICKLY , I loaded up her vehicle and sped away. To the best of my knowledge she never knew who..... She asked around at church and in town, but since we were not typically in a position to do "that kind of thing" we (I think,) escaped suspicion: exactly what we hoped for!!! I loved it!!! The second memory ? I was given a very difficult solo to sing in a Christmas cantata , while almost 6 months pregnant with Hannah It was one of the most beautiful songs I had ever sung, and the most difficult in range and scope. HOURS of practice, week after week on that song. By the week before we did our cantata performances, I was singing Sandi Patti's "Night of a Million Mornings" in my sleep, seeing the sheet music in everything I did; it was my boys' lullaby de jour for October, November and December, and into January when I could not get it out of my head and heart. It was one of the most captivating cantatas I have ever done. Not music specifically written as a Christmas cantata. but as a story told with already- written music. It contained a few traditional carols,; "People Need the Lord" was one of the other songs, so was a song whose title escapes me at the moment but its Joseph singing to the Baby Jesus was part of it.... "My Little One " or something... That Christmas of music is one of my all time favorite memories. I knew that I had sung "as unto the Lord" with "all my heart, all my mind and all my strength" with every ounce of ability God had given me. I had one of those "third person experiences" in that God somehow allowed me to hear the music as one in the audience, not as one performing. It was amazing fun!!!! I don't have that range any more, a lot of bronchitis and pneumonia when we moved to Oklahoma changed my Sandi Patti -esque range down quite a bit . I could not do that song as I did it "then" but its a wonderful memory !