Speaking of Sports

by John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Of all the holidays, Christmas is my favorite.  I probably enjoyed Halloween just as much when my kids were younger, but Christmas has always been a special time for me and my family.  I don’t decorate that much, but I tend to decorate early; say, right after Halloween.  We’ve put a Halloween tree up the last few years with lights and decorations so it’s very easy to change one of our trees into a Christmas tree.

We had five trees up in our house last year, but this year, we’re going with two.  One of them is my favorite Christmas tree ever.  My wife bought it at a yard sale for $10 and it was so beautiful when we first set it up.  

While examining the tree, I noticed a switch at the bottom and when I turned it on, the tree started going around in circles.  How cool is that?  Of course, it does require a little more decorating to make sure the entire tree is decorated from front to back and all around.

I love music and I love playing the piano and guitar, but I especially love music during Christmas.  Once the holiday season is over, my Christmas piano books are put away and I tend not to play very much for a few months, but when October rolls around, my Christmas books come back out and I begin playing the holiday classics once again.

I’m especially looking forward to the next few Christmas holidays of music since I was just asked to teach my 7-year old granddaughter piano lessons and I readily agreed.  My mother was a big piano lesson booster and all seven of us kids in our family took piano for at least 3-5 years.  I didn’t necessarily like it at the time, but I am so happy now that my mother asked (forced?) me to play.  My mother and sister taught piano lessons for many years and, in fact, my mother taught my three kids piano lessons for a few years so I know she would be happy to see me helping out my grandchildren.

Yes, some of my favorite songs are Christmas classics.  My two favorite Christmas albums are by Amy Grant and Bing Crosby and among my favorite Christmas songs ever are O Holy Night, The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters, Amy Grant’s Grown-up Christmas List, the Grinch song, and anything from Bing Crosby.

Getting back to decorating, this year was great due to the warm weather and no snow.  I was able to get outside and get everything outside decorated without using my coat.  That doesn’t happen all the time and there’s nothing worse than trying to put up Christmas decorations in snow and frigid temperatures.

As far as the inside goes, we have a pretty good system for Christmas and we were able to get all the decorations up and the rest put back in the garage loft by Nov. 13.  I don’t think I’ve ever had my Christmas decorations up by then.

You may think it’s kind of early, but when my kids were growing up, they loved it.  And, with my five grandkids stopping by almost every weekend, they love it too and I love sharing my excitement about Christmas with them.

We even got our Christmas cookies done early this year.  I mixed up some dough and made over 150 cookies one weekend in early November and when the grandkids showed up over the next few weekends we mixed up some frosting and made Christmas cookies.  It was hectic, messy and a lot of fun.

Yes, the Christmas holidays are a special time for me.  Take away the cold and it would be perfect.

Everyone celebrates the Holidays a little differently and I hope you’re able to find a way to celebrate and have some fun.  If you can’t enjoy yourself and have some fun during the Holidays, I’m not sure if you’ll ever be able to have fun.

Anyway, have a great holiday season and make sure to enjoy some of the great music concerts and holiday activities taking place throughout Pope County over the next few weeks.  Happy Holidays!