Merry Christmas to Me!

Guess what I found waiting in our apartment when Kevin and I returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Indiana?

This beauty!

He bought me a keyboard! He says it's an early Christmas present to both of us, but then he also told me this morning that we should still buy each other "something small" for the holidays. So I think maybe he was just being sweet.

I'm really excited - almost giddy. I took piano lessons for 10 years as a kid, but since I started college haven't played more than sporadically. Kevin has been saying for awhile now that he wanted to get a piano for our apartment, but I was worried about dragging one up the stairs and in our door, maintaining it, and bothering our neighbor downstairs. This is a perfect compromise. It's light and obviously doesn't need tuning. And, although it sounds a lot like a real piano, it won't resonate through the floor, and we can turn the volume way down or even plug in headphones.

Last night he brought me home a book of sheet music, and I immediately turned off the album I was listening to (A Very She & Him Christmas, which I'm really enjoying!) and sat down to play. It actually came back quickly, although I don't think the songs in the book are particularly hard. Kevin said he was impressed with how well I could sight-read, to which I reply, in a whisper...that's because I had to learn how to sight-read really well as I never practiced as much as I should've before my weekly piano lesson! I hated disappointing Mrs. DeMarco.

And there's one last thing that I really loved. We were heading out the door last night to pick out a Christmas tree (photos to come!), and Kevin was still fiddling around getting ready. I automatically gravitated toward the keyboard to play a song. That's exactly what I used to do as a kid - when I was waiting for my sisters to be ready or my friends (or boyfriends) to come and pick me up, I'd just sit and play until it was time to go. I slipped right back into the habit.