Christmas preparations

Three days until Christmas, and some things never change.

I have undertaken an utterly bonkers Christmas knitting project. You would think I would know better by now, but you would be wrong. I will show you pictures after its recipient opens it, but a lot of knitting needs to happen between now and then. Hoo boy, a lot of knitting.

I volunteered to sing for the early Christmas morning Mass, and I thought it would be a mellow undertaking, aside from the 7am call time. I was expecting it to be 4 hymns, all familiar. But! Another musician volunteered me to play guitar so he could play bass instead, and I said, sure, no problem, I can do that. And! The director announced that we'd be singing a Christmas hymn I'd never heard PLUS Mary Did You Know.

Mostly when I hear Mary Did You Know, I change the radio station or tune out. I'm not sure why it bugs me so much -- maybe because it seems written to be a Stirring Solo Piece? Maybe because it's theologically sketchy? But I am very fond of this director. If she asked me to sing a communion hymn written to the tune of Baby Shark, I would do my best to imbue it with reverence and joy. So-- I am singing Mary Did You Know. And you guys, I think it has the longest vocal range of any piece I've ever sung.

People complain about The Star-Spangled Banner, which spans an octave plus a fifth. That's the same as Silent Night, which has that whole folksy backstory but which is actually a bear to sing. One of its high notes falls at the end of a phrase, just as you're running out of breath support. But Mary Did You Know spans an octave plus a SEVENTH, which is just silly. If Handel doesn't ask his sopranos to span that wide a range across the entire Messiah, surely the Mary Did You Know songwriters could have reined it in.

I had not planned to squish much music practice into the days before Christmas, but I have guitar parts to learn and I have to figure out how to make it somewhat musical as I flop around between chest voice and head voice on Mary Did You Know. And the knitting, oh my goodness, the knitting.