We are closing in quickly on Christmas.  My tree isn’t up.  I haven’t wrapped a thing….I HAVE baked up a bazillion cookies…..I told you that Thursdays sneak up on me… and this one snuck right past me.  I could share with you the list of reasons why… but they might sound like complaints…. and really you don’t need to know why have bought stock in Ocean Spray.

I am neck deep in Sheep for Sunday’s Christmas Pageant….and my couch is covered in laundry.  clean laundry… Pretty normal for this time of year. 

Hopefully you are doing better in the decoration and laundry department than I am.

We are plugging along for the month of December… still working on Beethoven. I know it seems like forever we have been studying him, but I want the process to be thoughtful and not just whizzed through to say we have covered this composer.  I want there to be a lasting impression, an identification of who these men are and the lives the lived in a time far removed from our own.

Today is actually Beethoven’s Birthday.  Maybe that is why the post is a day late?  So I could share that with you on the actual day. ( ok… I am reaching…lol)

We studied this week about how Beethoven met Mozart. Mozart felt Beethoven a wee bit passé until he dazzled him with his improvisation skills.  That is what caused Mozart to take notice of this young musician.  Beethoven, he didn’t care much for Mozart either.  Thought that he played a bit “choppy”.   Maybe both of these boys needed a Midol the day they met.  The book made them sound like cranky teenage girls that couldn’t get along.

Beethoven rushed home from Vienna to tend to his dying mother. After she passed, then his littlest sister did as well.  The boughts of depression that plagued Beethoven began after this time in his life.  He was 17.  We left our studies this week as  Beethoven was the figurative head of the family.  He now needed to find a way to support his father and siblings.  Music would have to be the way.