Emptying the nest · Inspiration

My nostalgia fix – Christmas Sheet Music

Shelley

Every year, without fail, these musical treasures adorn the piano as part of my seasonal decorations.  It’s a tradition (I wrote about the sheet music before) – grandma did so, mom did so, and now I do so, too.

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When I pull them out, I call it my nostalgia fix for the year.  Each year, I get less and less teary-eyed.  I miss my mom dearly at this time of year.

Along with her and my grandma’s old sheet music, I pull out mom’s holiday bears and grin and bear it.  And cover chairs with them too.

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No matter how melancholy I become, I’m happy too.  It is fun to reminisce about special memories made here around the piano.

Even memories hung above and placed on the piano too.  Our youngest painted the picture hanging above the piano.  She used old family photos, copied first.  Then she cut silhouettes out and placed them strategically or randomly all over it.  I can still see my grandfather and my grandmother and my mom in some of the images.

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Our kids loved to play the piano, only one took formal lessons for a short stint, just like their mom did.  Both kids contributed their share of chips to the good ol’ ivory keys.  A well-worn, well-loved piano wouldn’t be anything less, right?

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Our cats haven’t quite gotten the hang of playing it.  Walking on the keys is their thing.  And it is a rude awakening in the middle of the night.  Normally the cover is shut so they can’t do it.  They do like it when I pull the bench out for them.  New turf must be sprawled out upon.

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My mom loved to sing Christmas carols ever since she was young.

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And she never forgot one of them, even with her dementia.  Long term memories stick especially musical ones.  My grandmother played the piano for her, my mom learned how to play it, and then I made my attempt at it learning it too.  I can still play some songs, I still can’t carry a tune, but I do both at this time of the year.   Just ‘cuz I do it when no one’s listening.

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One thing I can always count on is that I’ll get an ear-worm from at least one of these three songs.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9QLn7gM-hY

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I never could build a snowman with legs and arms, but it was a favorite movie to watch and a fun song to sing.

And then this one…I always wanted to catch Santa kissing my mom.

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Of course, Michael’s version is one of my favorites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITCmngiMfA

Well, gang, it’s time for me to run…there’s a cat under the tree and it doesn’t sound like music to my ears!

Post Inspiration – Tina’s Prompt at Lens-Artists #75 – Nostalgic and if Jim lets me stretch the Arms/Elbows/Knees/Legs prompt a bit, (I’m hoping so) – I’m joining the gang over at his blog for Song Lyric Sunday

PS – What is your favorite holiday song?  What decorations take you strolling down memory lane?  What is your favorite movie to watch this time of year?  

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

65 thoughts on “My nostalgia fix – Christmas Sheet Music”

  1. It’s nice to bring back something from the past, just as a reminder. Everyone can sing Christmas carols – most shouldn’t, but everyone can.

  2. Such sweet memories for you! I love those old cartoons, remember them from childhood. Your cats can play piano better than I could! 😎😂☺️

  3. This was lovely. I just love the painting with all the silhouettes. What a wonderful thing to have.
    Favourite Christmas songs and films, ugh! Too hard. I really love them all. Only a fiend would make me pick one of each!

    1. Thank you! I love the painting too. No fiend here, you’re welcome to listen to them all. And wow – thank you for they eye opening post about why you left Twitter!

  4. Shelley you are a bit early as the Christmas song Lyric prompt is not till December 22, 2019 and then it will be songs about Christmas/Holiday/Snowman. This week the theme is songs with Arms/Elbows/Knees/Legs. Anyway I liked your music.

    1. I probably won’t be around on the 22nd, so I appreciate you for humoring my effort of off key and off-target. The creeping down the stairs takes a limber stride with arms, elbows, knees and legs ;-).

  5. Even though you could probably rent those photos out to movie producers, this time of year is clearly, for you, so much about your mother. I wonder, have you given thought to some longer-than-blog writings about her and
    what she meant to you? We all had mothers, true, but no two are/were alike. It might also help with the never-ending healing process …

    1. LOL – do you think they’d pay me for the photos? 😉
      I may write more, I have before. It must be the 7 year thing going on, each year at this time, I think of her more. It’s different each year, never completely easy, but easier in a way than the year before.

  6. What a great collection. I hardly decorate anymore. Just the tree usually. Maybe some day I’ll get into it again, lord knows I have enough stuff!

    1. Thank you, Janet. I have a ton of stuff to decorate with, this is the second year in a row where I’ve limited what I’m putting out. It’s such a pain to dig it all out, then have to put it all back. I’ve started labeling/dating the boxes so I know what to grab and what to leave in storage. I can decorate and tear down in one day now.

  7. I used to hate “White Christmas”. As a child I had lessons to play the recorder. It was at a so-called music school and the headmaster loved it. It was always the end of our Christmas concerts. He was a rather big man with a loud voice and he shouted the sing over everybody else. Many years later I saw the film and now I love it. How things can change 😁🙋‍♀️🐝

    1. Being forced to sing any song would rub me the wrong way too. Glad you found a way to enjoy the song eventually. It is a classic. Nice to hear from you – what’ve you been up to lately!?

      1. It definitely us and such a beautiful song. I have started working again, have a spell of intense book reading, am blogging more and my husband had an operation and needs a little more tlc. I just don’t come around reading blogs which bothers me but I haven’t figured out a way yet. Thanks for asking 🙋‍♀️🐝

        1. Yes it is. Ah, that explains things. I completely understand – I have yet to figure out how to balance it all. It can be frustrating. Hang in there – keep doing what is best for you! xxxxx

  8. Sweet memories and wonderful traditions for this time of the year. Thank you for sharing with us, Shelley. 🙂

    1. Thank you, Amy, I’m glad you enjoyed them. Your photos are wonderful for the prompt. Such a charming area to see and fit so well with the quote!

  10. What a fantastic collection of nostalgia. Old sheet music with the attached warm memories is so precious. I really like how you “staged” your photos on the piano. Nicely done all around 🙂

    1. Thank you, I appreciate your feedback. The sheet music makes me wish in a way that I had kept more of grandma’s collection. The lucky collector who scored the big box of them at my thrift sale may still be quite happy. I hope is getting joy out of them and not relaxing on beach somewhere rich and famous! LOL!

      1. You’re welcome. It is hard to let go of things like that. And then there are regrets that may come later. I am experiencing that now realizing how much Christmas “stuff” we donated when downsizing. Sigh.

  11. Such beautiful memories <3 I took piano lessons for 9 years, mostly because my mom wanted it, and I wanted to make her happy. I think it is beautiful that you keep the traditions alive. My daughter and I made a snowman with arms and everything yesterday. It was fun. I only have a couple Christmas items so far that I feel are necessary, it's an elf with my daughter's name on and a Christmas stocking with her name on. We've moved so many times, but those are always with us. Anther tradition we have is to bake together, lots of different Christmas pastries, but also at least one gingerbread house. Have a wonderful week <3

    1. Aw, thank you! Do you ever still play! Obviously you don’t own a piano, it wouldn’t fit in your compact luggage. That’s so sweet you did have room for those special little trinkets. I bet what you bake together is delicious. I’ve been tempted to bake this year. We’ll see. I hope you have a wonderful week too – good luck apartment shopping!

      1. Thank you Shelley. I never had the feel for playing the piano. In all honesty, I didn’t like it. I did it without being forced just because I knew it made her happy. I kept it up a couple years after she passed, but then I quit. I don’t play anymore.

        I hope you do decide to bake. It is fun!
        We found the perfect place to live yesterday, so we are not shopping for an apartment anymore 🙂 Thank you!

        1. You’re welcome. I didn’t stick with it either. I do enjoy listening to the piano. And I wish I had been better – but we couldn’t afford the lessons and the time it took to get better. It was nice of you to do it for your mom’s happiness.
          Yeah…I’m warming up to the idea of baking some. We’ll see!
          YAY – I’m so happy you found the perfect place!!!

  12. This is wonderfully nostalgic Shelley, exactly what I was hoping for!!! The sheet music is a treasure as are your fond memories, and I love the artwork. Every year we would sit in our living room with Mitch Miller Christmas songs on the stereo and sing along. Your post brought me right back there! As an added bonus I now know every word to every song on those albums😊

  13. The sheet music makes for wonderful memories–and is such a nice decoration too. I so wish I could play the piano. We’ve got a hand-me-down piano and an organ, with no one to play! Need to get on those lessons for the kids!

  14. We always had a piano and my mom insisted we all take at least one year of lessons, including all four of my brothers. Some of us kept at it, but most didn’t. I have a lovely piano that gathers dust most of the time, I’m sorry to say. But Christmas is one time I do play it more. It is sadly in need of tuning right now, but I only think of it when the brother that still plays really well comes over and the kids want him to play “Linus & Lucy” from Charlie Brown’s Christmas, so they can all dance madly. LOL. My old Christmas books are a bit ragged, too, but they’re hold the best memories.

  15. This is a beautiful post about the piano and sheet music and your mom and grandmother Shelley. No one in my house played the piano; I played the accordion, but that’s not the same. The vintage sheet music you featured was interesting looking and I noticed your mom signed each of them in various forms. What beautiful memories you have.

    1. Thank you, Linda. I can only imagine how hard an accordian is to play. Yes, my grandmother wrote her name on every single one. One of them she even dated ’42. The year after my mom was born. When my mom was little, and started her own collection of books she wrote her name on them too.

      1. Ah, this was your grandmother’s name and I believe I said your mom. I keep forgetting you are younger than me and your mom would have been younger. My mom was 30 years older than me. My apologies. Yes, I noticed that date of ’42 also – was thinking of the movie “Summer of ’42” when I saw it for some reason. Your mom continued the tradition which is nice. I have not taken out the accordion in many years. No one taught lessons over here after we moved unfortunately.

        1. No worries, it’s okay – they were much alike, mom and grandma. I sold my clarinet after years of lugging it around, thinking I might play it again!

          1. I doubt I’ll ever play the accordion again and it’s been sitting downstairs in its case for decades. It does have crystals for keeping the humidity at bay in the case. The case is huge and takes up space. I took it out a couple of times to see if I could still play. I was not great at reading music but played more by ear. When I was at the ad agency, several of the writers and art directors played guitar and would gather in one of the offices and do impromptu songs – “Classical Gas” was one of their favorites. I would watch them and mentioned it at home and my parents bought me a folk guitar for Christmas one year. It is downstairs as well. I took lessons for folk guitar but I did not learn much and kept cutting my nails shorter and shorter, but still could not play or strum and gave it up. The young guy who taught the class was more interested in talking about his band and we spent 15 minutes tuning and talking, which left precious little “learning time” – something else to do in my retirement years. My parents should have sold it when there was nowhere to take lessons.

          3. I like that idea because when I had to clean the entire basement (and garage) since they made such a mess putting in the whole-house insulation in 2017, I spent many weekends downstairs cleaning up and getting rid of a lot of items, but left 1/4 of the basement “to deal with later” as I’d had enough by then. If I could whip that area into shape … perhaps, but it is densely packed with stuff, all my stuff, and books and jigsaw puzzles in tubs, Christmas decorations and the sewing machine, a mini freezer (not plugged in). Stuff, stuff and more stuff! A retirement project for over the Winter!

          5. I spent the entire Summer of 2017 dealing with messes … the two plumber messes and I painted both times where they drilled/dug into the basement floor (two floor drains, two separate times and removed the tiles), then the mess from the insulation guys. Then the guy was cleaning lint from the dryer and forgot to put the A/C hose back into the laundry tub and it drained all over the floor so I had to clean it again. I had had it by then (messes from June through October) and took an attitude at that point and just left that 1/4 of the basement without dealing with it. Not mature, but that was my Summer, so I got a bad attitude! Through it all, I did not miss my walks and was adamant I should not miss the best part of my day.

  17. I enjoyed hearing about your family tradition. That’s lovely. I love “White Christmas.” For the past few years, we went to a historic theater in Chicago and watched a special viewing of “White Christmas” with a live orchestra/organ. It was fabulous. I will miss it this year!

    1. Thank you, Patti. I bet that concert was wonderful to see. I love those historical theaters – my youngest lived in the dorms next to the “Chicago Theater”. PS – your three walks photos are so gorgeous – I’m envious of your trip there and also inspired by your gift of composition. Merry Christmas to you and your family!!

    1. Wendy, thank you for your comment! I love the song, but I’m not sure if I’ve seen the movie. Hmm…maybe I should rent it? Thank you for stopping by, I’m glad you enjoyed the post! And…I adore the photos you shared for the prompt. So quaint and charming!!

      1. It’s really good, especially if you enjoy the old black and white movies. You really can never go wrong with Bing Crosby. 🙂 Thank you for your comment about my blog as well.

        1. I do love those old movies! You’re welcome! Happy Holidays to you – I hope there’s some watching of Bing in your plans.

      1. Not really that ahead – got my butt kicked this week and well – …. life always comes first and then the blog – ha – and for my countdown this month I combined a few days – and all Good – hope
        Your Sunday is going well (and by the way – I like catching up on your posts – not a chore – ha)

        1. Aw…I’m still behind, and giving myself permission to be okay with what I can get done. I hope you’re able to get to the point you want to be! Sunday was busy, but I took a few more baby-steps to get further ahead! xx

          1. Well I m good too –
            I combined three of my countdown days – shhhh – nobody seemed to notice or care –
            Lol
            –
            Happy Monday

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