And Christmas parties

 I like the Ungar family's music. I'm not sure if it would be called "roots" or "folk" or "Americana" or what. Basically, it's traditional or traditional-sounding tunes played (exclusively?) on acoustic instruments - so the kind of music you imagine your great or great-great grandparents would recognize.

They have a nice album called A Fiddler's Holiday (and IIRC there is also at least on Hanukkah tune on there). 

I particularly like this version of Silent Night. If you look at the sheet music or have ever played around with the piece, you know it's in waltz time and can, in fact, be played a little quicker than it's typically sung and it's a nice, light, graceful waltz.

Here, they re-imagine as a country two-step; sort of like folks in the bayou might dance to:

 

I can imagine a Christmas get-together, friends or extended family or even in some of these really small places, most of the whole town, and there's a small band - maybe the local pharmacist plays the fiddle, and his wife can manage on the piano, and the guy who works at the mechanic's shop plays the banjo- and while they're not Carnegie Hall, they play well enough and the people enjoy their talent and they like playing for folks.

And at the end of the evening, after they've played mostly Christmas carols and hymns all evening, the big tables people ate dinner at are pulled back, and they break into this, and people dance....old couples who've been married forever still loving to dance with each other, and young couples shyly joining in and wondering (hoping) some day they will be one of those old couples, and little kids just joining hands in a circle and jumping around because they don't know how to dance yet. 

I don't get to go to parties like that - if they even still exist anywhere - most of the parties I go to are more sedate, and are mostly women, just people sitting around a table and eating and talking. And there's always the reminiscences - "do you remember how Dorothy used to look for the lightest present in the gift exchange because she said she didn't want to have something else to dust?" And people talk about their families, their plans for the holiday. 

And the same old foods show up. I had several women at the AAUW party this year see me walk in with my crockpot of meatballs and say "oh! I HOPED you were making those this year!" (which is why, even though I referred to them a couple weeks back as "those darn meatballs" I still make them, because people like them). 

And then, at the end, people saying extended goodbyes to each other because in some cases it might be the last time they see each other until the new year. (I admit I often do what is alternatively called "Irish Goodbye" or "French Exit" - I duck out quickly, maybe waving if someone sees me, partly because by the time I'm ready to leave I'm tired and want to LEAVE and not spend another 20 minutes talking, or, in a few cases, I've gotten teary - most often when there's someone in the group who rarely makes it out and where I suspect it might be the last time I see them, I try to say a quick "it was good to see you" and get out before I start to feel sad)