Our Christmas tree — an artificial one — has been sitting naked in the corner since #1 son and I set it up last weekend. Last night after I went to bed, my husband stayed up and added lights, so that I woke up to the wonderful festive lighted tree.

You can tell he did it because of the neat lines of lights. His vegetables are always planted in tidy rows. He makes Craftsman tools and he likes precision.

This does not keep him from tossing his socks onto the floor.

We must have a song about light today. This is a reasonably popular theme for Advent hymns, but I want to offer you “Light of the Stable.” I sang this with the choirlet last year, and it’s fun to sing. I think the recording by Selah is most popular, but I like the one in the video, recorded in 1975 ago by Emmylou Harris with backup by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young.

Steve Rhymer and Elizabeth Rhymer wrote the song. Here are the words:
Hail, hail to the newborn king
Let our voices sing him our praises
Hail, hail to the guiding light
That brought us tonight to our savior
Ale, alleluia, alle, alleluia Ale, alleluia, alle, alleluia
Come now, there it shines so bright
To the knowing light of the stable
Lean close to the child so dear
Cast aside your fear and be thankful
Ale, alleluia, alle, alleluia Ale, alleluia, alle, alleluia

 

This is quite a simple song, which you can enjoy singing by yourself or with friends while you decorate your tree. It is of course terrific with guitar, and I’d like to hear a violin on it, too.

Steve Rhymer was a Canadian songwriter, a member of a Novia Scotian band called the Badd Cedes. He and Elizabeth Rhymer were married and they wrote this song, and that’s all I’vre been able to learn about either of them.

I am not feeling well today for some reason. Sniffling, sneezing, sore throat, headache — allergies, I assume. I have taken a drug and I’m hoping to get better.

I plan to finish decorating for the holidays. I put the doll collection on the mantelpiece and hung up some wreaths already.

Knitting of Christmas gifts must also take place, and I suppose there will have to be housework and grocery shopping. I hope to feel better before I move on to that.

I placed an order for a Christmas gift at Amazon and they told me it might not arrive in time. This suggests that it must be closer to Christmas than I’ve been thinking it is. I still have one more gift to buy, plus things for stockings. Also food and drink.

My personal rule is never to enter a store after December 15. We’ll see how I do on that this year.