Murdo Girl

I ran across this post written after a Christmas gathering at our friends Pat and Jerry’s house back in 2016.. I wanted you to see all of the pictures of their beautiful home. It’s sure to put you in the Christmas Spirit.
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There is also a story…of course.

If I could wish for a gift of talent, I would like to be a singer. I love to sing, but I have no voice. I was in girls chorus and mixed chorus all four years of high school. I even got to sing in a couple of ensembles. I can only speculate all these years later, that Mr. Palmer must have needed someone who wanted to be a singer, to sort of stand there and sing softly. He probably needed someone to fill in at times when he only had 5 and needed 6.

He had to have known I couldn’t sing a lick. Fortunately, I knew enough not to sing bad  loudly.

When I own the fact that I can’t sing, people must sense that it pains me not to be able to raise my voice in song, because someone will always say, “Oh Mary, I bet you have a lovely voice.” The truth is my less than melodic voice has been tested and others have confirmed what I already knew.

You can always count on a 4 yr. old to tell you the truth..even if he’s your own child. My youngest did not like me to sing. I couldn’t even sing along with the radio in the car without making him cry. I didn’t purposefully try to hurt his ears, but sometimes I forgot myself and started to hum a tune or sing some song that had been going through my head. He would cry, “Don’t sing mommy! Please don’t sing.” When he got a little older, occasionally we picked up one of his friends and drove them to school. Before the friend got to the car, my little darling would ask me to please remember not to sing while his friend was in the car. At least he stopped crying when I forgot.

Even if you are a terrible singer, you can still only take so much. Name one person who loves to sing that can resist karaoke? I’m talking about a couple of cousins getting together with a friend who happens to have an incredible karaoke set-up with hundreds of songs. I couldn’t resist. In fact, it was my kind of stage. They had to shut out the lights and tell me the party was over to get me to hand over the microphone. I’ll probably never get that chance again. You know how word spreads.

At the beginning of this story, I showed you a picture of a beautiful house. It is the home of our good friends Pat and Jerry Davis. I wrote a few days ago about their unbelievable Christmas decorations and the 13 trees.

They had a wonderful party last week. It was everything a good Christmas party should be and more. Good food, fun friends, and festive in every way. After everyone finished eating and talking and oohing and aahing at all the decorations, someone suggested we sing a few Christmas carols. Most of the people at the party belong to the same church and we have some talented singers and musicians in our congregation. Ron is one who can sing and play a mean piano or organ. I stood by Jerry thinking I could follow his harmonizing. He sang the melody so that didn’t work out too well.

Did I hear someone say, “put a sock in her mouth?”

So..I hit my best 3 or 4 notes and sang my heart out. I may have made a grave mistake. You see, I stood right next to the organ. The thing I didn’t consider at the time, is we’ll be spending New Years Eve with Ron and his wife and a couple of other friends. We’re going back to the RV park where we spent Thanksgiving. Guess what? Ron is putting on a show at the clubhouse..and..He’s bringing his karaoke machine. At least he was going to.

Beautiful home and fabulous decorations. You will note the winter scene in the lower right corner..It’s made from the Styrofoam from the new TV set box. I only got about 1/2 of all the trees and other special touches, but take my word for it. It is a Christmas wonderland.