Happy Thanksgiving (or Black Friday, depending on when you're reading this)!
Ours was really great. (That right there is an Awesome Writer Sentence, by the way) I'm currently on the lappy in my bedroom (turns out, you can get public access Wi-Fi in my apartment, but only from my closet floor) so I won't be online long, sine this is an unsecured connection and there are Bad People out there. Just enough time to update the blog and do some quick research for my next play.
Went with the whole family to see the Thanksgiving fireworks/ Christmas light lighting/ whatever else at the Galleria tonight. We parked a decent distance away, and the night was beautiful, so we got a nice walk in. Robbie rode happily in his stroller, clutching with both hands the band new John Deere dump truck his Nanny and Grandaddy gave him (he let that thing out of his sight twice all day, and "nap time" was not part of the twice). When the fireworks started to blow, he sat in his stroller and watched, eyes wide, but he confided to Kim that it was "a little bit scary." So I picked him up, and he watched the rest of the show with his head leaning on my shoulder and one hand clutching the bucket of his dump truck. For awhile, he tried to name all of the colors as they came up (Purple! And red! And purple! Yellow! Blue! Purple!), but this pursuit was eventually abandoned. When it was over, he cheerfully said "Yaaaay" with everyone else, then turned to me and said, "I want to go home." He had a good time, but it was already past bed time and he was one tired boy.
One surprising moment for me came during the show's grand finale. From where we were standing, it was difficult to hear the music over the noise of the explosions for the most part, but as the show reached its climax I very distinctly heard the sound of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus in the air. That piece has been one of my favorite few minutes of music since we sang it for the first time in high school. It's such a moving, jubilant exclamation of celebration, and while I know it was only chosen because it's a famous Christmas song, and we were having Christmas fireworks, there was something almost profoundly moving, to me, in seeing the skies burst in celebration of the Lord. I know, I know, the whole shebang is the ultimate in holiday cheese, but when I saw the heavens erupt and heard the voices proclaiming "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, hallelujah!" and "And He shall reign forever and ever!" I couldn't help but stand in awe of all that Christmas really, truly is.
It calls to my mind Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord, the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Awesome.
And while I'm sure worship was the furthest thing from the minds of those putting the evening together, or even of 99% of the people gathered in the street tonight, still I trembled just a bit at the goodness of God tonight.
