"By the Light of the Silvery Moon"

Let's all sing! Let's all say, 'another oldie, but goodie'--argh! But really, it's not all that bad, it's even kind of cute. And I can just imagine the my internal barbershop quartet doing it. . .what? You don't *have* an internal barbershop quartet?

A bit past the full moon tonight, and very very chilly here in Pittsburgh. Tonight was our second annual night of neighborhood caroling (called only on account of rain, and the skies were clear). We were out for about an hour, then came back to our house for hot cider and cookies, though no one could stay very long, lots of kids with school tomorrow in the mix. Last year it was very cold also, and we went out then, too. This year we had a slightly bigger crowd to expose to the elements. I'm hoping at some point that people will return for more than one year, but except for my daughter and I (and she's six!), we're not doing so well in that regard. But it was, again, weirdly fun. A winter initiation, worthy of a merit badge, surely. I suspect that very few people heard us singing, yes, but still! We sang! Sometimes all the verses!

The very first year that we lived in our house we had carolers at the door and I thought, how great! The following years I realized that maybe that was a one-off, and so I decided to recreate the tradition myself. It's helpful that my daughter's school moved to my neighborhood, which gives me another community to draw on. I love the idea of kids coming along, and logging this as one of their holiday memories. It feels like a tradition, revived, renewed, or recreated.