I learned the piano all the way through school. I wasn’t bad, and I enjoyed it, but the one thing I always regretted about it being the piano was that it wasn’t an ensemble instrument. So ever since I was in my teens I’ve had this 19th century fantasy about playing the piano while everyone sang Christmas carols around me.
Tonight, I played Christmas carols on the piano for three other adults, and five children. At one point (jingle bells, of course), I think I had all of them singing (possibly excluding the two year old). One of the four year olds afterwards came up to me and said very seriously that that was the best christmas party she had ever been to.
I realised that all these years, to make it happen, all I had to do was start playing. Everyone just joined in.