Merry Christmas!

[Billgrass]

I wish you all a very warm, family filled, rejoicing Christmas. So far mine has been more than I could've hoped for. And that includes music, family and love. Merry Christmas, my fellow mando travelers.

[Handy Hummingbird]

Merry Christmas!

[Ivan Kelsall]

A Merry Christmas & a Happy & Healthy New Year to all my fellow 'Cafe members,
Ivan

[journeybear]

To all my virtual (whether or not virtuous) friends, with whom I spend more time than with some of my actual (whether or not factual) friends, I send warm wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season, and hope the peace, joy, and friendliness we are enjoying now continues through the coming year.

[Wilbur James]

Merry Christmas, hoping all involved achieve your MAS this christMAS! Thanks everyone and have a joyous New Year!

[Upstate Al]

Merry Christmas to all of you. Peace

[Jim]

Peace & Joyful Christmas to you all.

[F-2 Dave]

Merry Christmas to everyone at the cafe.

[Randi Gormley]

Merry Christmas and joyful music!

[Randi Gormley]

And a Merry Christmas to you all!

[rsgars]

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, everyone!

[greg_tsam]

Merry Christmas!

[greg_tsam]

Merry Christmas!

[tburcham]

Merry Christmas to all my Cafe friends.

[mandolinlee]

To All-

Have a Merry Christmas and a Musical New Year.
Thanks for all the good wishes.

Lee

[Cheryl Watson]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

https://soundcloud.com/cheryl-j-wats...-rock-mandolin

[lukmanohnz]

To everyone on the Cafe - thank you for enriching my world with your mandolin knowledge and experience. Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

[Rob Beck]

Cheryl, that was great! Merry Christmas everyone

[George R. Lane]

The Cafe is my Christmas present everyday. Merry Christmas to you all.

[cayuga red]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

https://soundcloud.com/cheryl-j-wats...-rock-mandolin

That's a great version! And your Mike Kelly sounds really good. Happy Holidays!

[CES]

Merry Christmas!

[shortymack]

Only one reason for the season, Merry Christmas to all who sit and eat all the mando goodies served here at the cafe.

[allenhopkins]

At the risk of being pretentious (and long-winded), I'd like to share some thoughts I sent out in my weekly e-newsletter last weekend:
A season to rejoice and reflect...
You could get really angry, anxious or depressed over the 2012 holiday season: children murdered in Connecticut, politicians wrangling in Washington, prophecies of gloom and doom as we cliff-dive into the New Year. At least the Mayans, apparently, had it wrong about the world ending. Reading about the reaction "south of the border," though, can give a different perspective; Mexicans see the ending of the "Mayan cycle" as heralding a new cycle, with opportunities for major positive change –– a "rebirth," you might say, at the time when we mark the birth of a new year, and the birth of a Jewish child two millennia ago, who went on to found our major religion, and teach us to love our neighbors, and help the less fortunate.

The holiday season always brings a busy round of performances, with a celebratory theme, and there's an "up" feeling that stimulates the performer to entertain the audience. People come to these "parties" prepared to be joyful, to enjoy the blessing of music, food and fellowship, and to take an optimistic view of their circumstances and their opportunities in the years ahead. And we should recognize that there are ample reasons to be optimistic; that we can take heart and face the future with some hope and confidence that problems will be addressed and solved, needs met, obstacles removed, liberty and prosperity enhanced. Not that we'll avoid every setback and conflict, but that, as Martin Luther King pointed out, paraphrasing abolitionist Theodore Parker, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

It can seem a bit facile to be smiling and strumming and singing about the good times ahead, when so much is wrong and so many suffer. But as family gathers, kids and grandkids, siblings and and their children, to share one more meal and hand around gifts and good wishes, positive thoughts seem unavoidable. So I'll (perhaps naively) enjoy them while they're here, and believe that the next year will bring melody and harmony, rather than discord and dissonance.

Thanks for suffering through that, and as Dickens' Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, every one!"

[journeybear]

Thanks for sharing that. Some old wiseacre once observed, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." At least, we didn't start the fire(s) currently burning. Another wag opined, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast." One can only hope. People do find much solace, inspiration, enlightenment, and enjoyment in music, and those of us who can provide such uplifting effects through this roundabout method ought to do what we can to further this. Not everyone can make music, but almost everyone likes it. It behooves us to do what we can, in this way, to make the world a better place, or at least a more endurable one. As yet another smart feller put it, "If music be the food of love, play on."

Minor historical quibble - I understand it was the followers of that well-meaning carpenter who turned his words and deeds into a religion, not the man himself. Be that as it may, it wouldn't hurt to embrace and enact many of the positive aspects of all that was said and done in those days.

[strings777]

Merry Christmas everyone!