I had a lengthy and intense Christmas-music phase, making it (paid the bills), listening to it, all that. And while I’m no longer an active Episcopalian (how can you tell, really?), it’s fitting for this northern clime to get all Advent-y about it.

You know. You hold off on the tree ’til late. You get pensive as the days get shorter. Sweaters. There’s plenty of full-on Christmas music to love in Anne-Sofie von Otter‘s “Home for Christmas.” She is game as they get with a folk-sounding ensemble on several cuts. But what reels me in are her two (Swedish and English) versions of “Koppangen.”

Now, I can’t speak to the translation’s fidelity to the original, but this turn of phrase hits just the right note for me come December 1:

For a while I’m eternal
that’s the only thing I know,
I am here and we share our
dreams about our destination.