Jumping for Joy

So I threw myself a birthday party. I invited my “ohana”….friends here in Hawaii who have become family.

Part of the festivities was a carol sing. Mike and Lisa and Aaron and Joe and Richard and Lynn and I played guitar or ukulele. Doug played keyboards. DH played his Cajon. Nancy, Henry, Jeff, Father David and Nida sang along.

I had printed off some music books in advance, and one of the carols was “Joy To The World.” I introduced the song by telling the story of Pastor Dick Wright, who’s tradition at the final song of the (loooooong) Christmas Eve service was to jump at certain points in the song, identified by underlined words in the printed bulletin.

Dick died in February 2017. On Thursday this week, on my birthday, his wife Liedeke called to wish me a happy day, and we both cried as we reminisced about how we used to “Jump for Joy” on Christmas Eve…..

….and so after introducing the song at my party, and telling them how I was going to stand and jump in memory of Dick, I was delighted when a couple partygoers joined me.

It is hard to sing while jumping.
It is harder to sing while jumping and playing ukulele.
It is harder still to sing while jumping, playing ukulele and crying.

Thanks Dick (and Liedeke)…for the memories.

May you all jump with joy this Christmas!