Saturday December 16, 2023
This morning I woke up early because I needed to do some preparation to record the annual Christmas episode of The Protagonist Podcast. My friends Joseph Darowski, Andrew Darowski, and I started The Protagonist almost ten years ago, and every year we have a traditional episode in which Andrew gives Joe and me several titles of real Christmas movies, and Joe and I each make up synopses of what we “think” those movies are. After each round, Andrew awards a point to whomever has written the story he would most like to see made into a movie. It’s all very silly, but also very fun, and it’s one of my favorite holiday traditions. All of the craziness this year made preparation particularly challenging, but I’m glad I got it all done.
You can listen to it here .
Once I finished writing, Betty and I went for a run.
For lunch we went out for sushi at The Happy Sumo because it was my brother-in-law Zack’s birthday. My dad’s brother Tom came and joined us as well. It’s been years since I’ve seen Tom, so it was wonderful to see him. When she saw him, River asked him what he had done with his glasses. It wasn’t for a few minutes that we realized she thought he was my dad!
After lunch, Joe and Andrew and I recorded the podcast, and then in the evening we had a super fun Christmas dinner with some of my cousins and aunts and uncles on my dad’s side of the family. You can probably tell if you’ve read this far in this blog that family is super important to us.
Speaking of the importance of family, my mother gave a really special gift this year.
Music has always been important on both sides of my family, and the Macks have a tradition of singing a few songs every year. These are songs that came to us through the Kimball side of the family (that’s my Dad’s mom’s side) and were special favorites of my great-grandfather Spencer W. Kimball. The songs are “The Little Elf Man ,” “The Mistletoe Bough ,” and “The Oregon Gypsy Jew.”
These songs date from at least the middle of the 19th century, and they each tell a memorable story. The Mistletoe Bough is my favorite -- it’s the story of a couple who plays hide and seek on their wedding night. The wife hides so well that nobody finds her until decades later, when they discover her skeleton in an old oak chest. Apparently it was one of the most popular Christmas songs in the late 1800s in England. One of those “scary ghost stories of long long ago.” And there are some great modern recordings as well :)
Anyway, for Christmas my mother printed out the lyrics and history of these songs and gave them in book form to each of her kids and to the Mack aunts and uncles as well. It was so fun hearing my family sing these songs together. Music is just amazing, and it made this night magical.
Itwouldn’t be a Mack Christmas party without a nativity scene :)