Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Grant has become a fan of Spotify of late, and so we've been listening to some new albums, which has been fun.

A recent favorite is Sufjan Stevens "Songs for Christmas". I think our favorite song on the album is "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!", but there are lots of fun ones on there, and I really like his version of "I Saw Three Ships".

It also has a version of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", that song always makes me think of my dad, because I think it was his favorite song. Christmas time in general makes me think of him, since the last time I saw him was at a little Christmas party he put together for all us kids at Grandma's house the week between Christmas and New Years.

I didn't want to go, and I wasn't overly friendly, and to be honest I don't remember what we did, or ate, or how he looked, or really any details. The weird thing is when I try to remember the party the thing I picture most clearly is us all sitting my grandma's green shag carpet. But she replaced that carpet a long time ago, so it wasn't even there at the time, so I don't know why in there memories I try to re-create of the event all I can picture is that carpet. Things with my dad were complicated at the time, and while I understand why I acted the way I did, I wish I had tried a little harder to accept him reaching out. And I wish I'd given him a Christmas card and told him I love him.

Anyway, I've been thinking about the things that I think I inherited or learned from my dad, and that I'm grateful for -

- My love of reading. You hardly ever saw him sitting down without a book in his hand.
- My love of going places. Dad loved planning family vacations and going places, and he loved just going anywhere really. Sometimes on Sunday we would just get in the van and drive to nowhere in particular and just look at the scenery.
- My stubbornness. While this causes me a lot of grief at times, it's also been a blessing at others, because if I'm determined to make something happen, I generally stick at it until I find a way

So there you have it - kind of a random post, sorry!