All I want for Christmas is Rain

Christmas Eve this year puts me in mind of one very special christmas eve many years ago. It is raining now, but then it was snow that was falling. The outside lights created a dramatic backdrop for the snow silently falling on the texas hills.  That year most of the family was delayed in arriving at the "farm" , Mom was already in bed, Pop was watching the late night news and weather. I was in the kitchen finishing up the baking for the following day.
for many years I had heard the stories of Pop putting himself thru college by playing his horn. Once he told me that his church going organ playing mother would have had a stroke if she knew about the speakeasies he had played in and the goings on he had witnessed...but that horn put him thru college and got him an engineering degree. Pop told very entertaining stories about those days and I had often asked him to play his horn for me, always getting a shake of the head and the lament that it had been just too many years. Others in the family played for University marching bands....high school bands of national renown...a granddaughter became a music teacher.
Pop began this line of musicians but I had never heard him play and I so longed for that.
This particular christmas eve as I was finishing up in the kitchen, I heard the sliding glass door open onto the deck. Given that it was quite cold, I was surprised that Pop would go out on the deck. I stood at the kitchen sink, looking out the window watching the snow silently fall, thinking about the final things that needed to be done before I could go to bed. It was then that I heard the first tentative notes of a horn. a hesitant start gave way to more confident notes forming the song Silent Night. It was the most incredible moment as I realized that Pop was playing his horn. One song ended and another began, a lively boogie woogie tune from the 40's...followed bySilent Night again...this time confidently played notes danced on the snowflakes falling in those Texas hills. Pure magic! Pop crossed the deck outside and went ih the Master suite via the door on that end of the porch.
I stood at the sink, tears cascading down my face as I realized that I had just received the most precious gift I had ever received. Pop gave a bit of himself  that christmas. I will never forget it...years have passed yet the magic of the moment is as strong as ever.
Christmas Morning as we all gathered, Pop gave me a little wink and a nod, Santa Claus in person. We never spoke of it, it was as if we both knew it would ruin the magic of the moment.
So rain still falls tonight on the texas hills where I live and it seems, for just the barest of moments, that I can hear the notes of a boogie woogie horn. Merry christmas to all