Scent Notes: Clove, amber, oatmeal stout, brown sugar and orange.

This was Day 7 in our Yule Advent Calendar.

Piano lessons. Day in and day out. Can't a girl get a break? Lucy lived with her Great Aunt Deloris in an old house just at the edge of town. The wood floors creaked and the windows were single-pane and rattled in the wind sometimes. Playing the piano wasn't so bad, but her teacher, Mr. Jones, smelled kinda bad and made her repeat the same phrase again, and again, and again... until she thought her brain would explode with boredom. Great Aunt Deloris said Lucy would "thank her when she's older," but for now, Lucy felt only the drudgery of the lessons. As the morning turned to afternoon, Lucy started to become mesmerized by the snow piling up in light drifts outside, and eventually, Mr. Jones announced, "That's enough for today, let's pick it back up tomorrow morning, " and began to pick up his things. Lucy was halfway out of the room already, at a sprint, and shouted, "Thanks Mr. Jones!" as she went for her coat and mittens.

As soon as she was dressed she burst out of the house and ran around the yard, scooping up mitten-fulls of snow and flinging them into the air. She made snow angels, she made a little snow man. She used her footprints to create a huge heart in the yard. The afternoon turned to dusk and Lucy was getting a little cold and hungry. Time to go in!

As she walked up the front step and twisted the door knob, she began to hear the most beautiful song coming from the piano. She tiptoed into the warm house and the smell of Great Aunt Deloris's baking wafted around her. She perched at the doorway to the living room and discovered it was Great Aunt Deloris playing! Lucy let the ripe music sweep over her. It was a song she had never heard before, long sorrowful notes articulated with sharper punctuations. Lessons with Mr. Jones NEVER sounded this magnificent. Lucy silently sank to the floor and leaned her head against the wall, eyes closed, heart open, and listened with all her might. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel now, that all of her practice was leading somewhere. Here. And in this warm little house just outside of town, Lucy fell in love with music.