Christmas Carols

For the past month, Christmas carols have been heard at Haus Jansen seemingly continuously, and none of us has tired of them. Not surprisingly, our kids know more of them (and more verses of them) than Jocelyn or I did when we were their age.

I realized this yesterday at Mass, when our two oldest girls were able to sing along with all the verses of "We Three Kings of Orient Are", including my favorite:

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

At the beginning of Advent, Jocelyn had the idea to have the four oldest kids practice one carol to sing for family gatherings these past few weeks. She picked "The Friendly Beasts", not only because it's a great song, but also because they could each have their own verse.

Here's their first "performance", at their Tito Joey's house a few weeks ago: