Let's get ready to Rum Ball!

Just made nearly six dozen rum balls for the holiday. Okay, okay... I made seven dozen. But I had to make sure they were edible, didn't I? They are. MMMMMmmmm.

And now, strangely enough, am in a rather festive mood. Got carols on the tele-o-vision, was dancing in the living room. Dogs seemed to like my moves. The sky is gray (go figure) but the air is crisp and the rum is flowing. I'm thinking about Christmas carols. Do you have a favorite or two?

Nothing gets me in the mood to be merry like holiday songs (and rum balls, of course). In my last incarnation as a music major, I sang in many concerts; the best by far was the annual Candlelight Concert. So many beautiful carols -- many I'd never heard before. Naturally we did the traditional fare -- your Silent Nights, Jingle Bells, and the like. But for variety, the choir director invariably threw in some lesser knowns, and some of them have become my favorites. Have you heard "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly?" Or "In the Bleak Mid-winter?" Or "The Oxen," which is a Hardy poem set to voices. So beautiful. I tend to prefer the melancholy ones, like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (especially in Latin). Something sweet and sad about them. More in keeping with my mood this time of year, but then, I've always preferred the dark to the syrupy.

In honor of the day, and the mood I'm in (bittersweet chocolate rum ball buzz), I give you that Hardy poem. Enjoy.

The Oxen

(Thomas Hardy)

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! And yet I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come! See the oxen kneel

In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.