Happy Christmas(War is Over)

Happy X-Mas(War is Over!)

I have to admit, this song is a guilty pleasure of mine which I have to listen to even when it's not Christmastime. It's that good!
Anyways, I had the chance to hear this song LIVE! No, I didn't hear the late, great John Lennon perform this classic(though I was
alive at the time of its release). I was only a little tot at the time and even if I did hear it, I probably wouldn't have remembered-or woould I have?

Anyways, I got to hear this song live as played by my brother, Doug Floyd, who is a musician. His girlfriend lived in Germany at the time
working as an au pair for a German family who wanted their children to learn English, so they hired an English speaking au pair, somehting which
they had done every year or so.

When it was discovered that Doug's girlfriend, Karlie, didn't have a lot of money to come home for Christmas(which meant
buying an expensive plane ticket overseas back to the midwest from Europe), he got this great idea. He would hold a benefit for
here at a bar in Milwaukee called the Mosaic, in order to raise money for a ticket.

Doug and I have been playing guitar and other instruments for most of our half-lives(meaning, since we were teenagers).While I taught myself using books and reading many guitar magazines, he learned on the fly and mostly by picking things up from his roommate, Matt, who had formal guitar lessons for many years. While our playing styles are very different,I offered to play along with him or even sing background vocals, in order to help ease any stage fright he might have had. But he wanted to do this for Karlie on his own, and I respected that.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I found it wasn't going to be an open mike sort of thing, but an actual performance
of Doug's stuff, with a few covers thrown in there for those unfamiliar with Doug's playing style and voice.

With the lights low and the opening jazz band having just finished their time, Doug took the stage. I had taken my other brother, Nick and a few other friends with us to listen to him pour his heart out on stage. And as the first few chords strummed I held my breath for a few seconds. Either he'd bomb after a few songs and we'd clap anyways or...he'd be AWESOME!

He played with the skill and enthusiasm of any seasoned professional, joking a little with the crowd in between songs(almost all of which were his originals).

He didn't do the feared shredded chords he used to play when he was first learning ten or so years ago. He seemed at ease and while the booze flowed, he got
even better. And of course, when a patch of light snow trickled from the sky outside, illuminated by the streetlights above, they resembled falling stars. Just then he played his last song.

"And so this is Christmas," he began. "and what have you done? Another year over. A new one just begun."

They had raised the money for Karlie to come home and return back to Germany afterwards, making the benefit a rousing success.

It was a beautiful cap to a perfect night for music lovers and beyond. It was then when I knew he and Karlie were going to be just fine.