This morning Joe came downstairs at 4:30. Not sure what woke him. Why is he waking up so early on Saturdays and Sundays? It is blustery outside, and has continued snowing here overnight. Dan shoveled last night around 9:00, and this morning you can't tell. The timer is malfunctioning on Frosty, and the lights stay on all night! This morning, Frosty looks like this...
You cannot see Frosty clearly from a pic with my cell phone camera, but you do get the idea that our back yard is illuminated!
It will be a good day to stay inside and listen to the sounds of the season. The great thing about Christmas music, is that it's pretty timeless. I've only added a couple of Christmas CD's in recent years, because I have such a vast collection that I enjoy. I have every celtic "Winter Solstice" cd. I have the Time Life Christmas treasury in vinyl albums and cd format. Here are the things I have to listen to, every year....
The Chieftans have an album titled "The Bells of Dublin." You can find it on Amazon still. "The Wren" is my favorite track, running over 12 minutes long. They have guest artists singing with them, as they often do.
The children's Christmas cd I can't live without is Raffi's Christmas. It is soothing, yet fun. Nothing annoying about it! I love the accordian arrangements in it. It was the first time I had ever heard "Must Be Christmas". "Who's got a beard that's long and white? Santa's got a beard that's long and white!...."
Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas is a must have. Matt searched high and low to give me the cd one year! I have the dvd of a Charlie Brown Christmas yet...I must watch it annually.
A few years ago I treated myself to 2 new Christmas albums. This is probably the most listened to for me. It contains my favorite Christmas song, "Go Tell It on the Mountain." In addition to loving his voice, there are a lot of nice acoustic guitar accompaniments.
Sarah McLachlan's "Wintersong" was the other new offering I treated myself to. Her version of "The First Noel" is my favorite. It bursts into an uptempo middle easetern sounding reel. She has the voice of an angel, always.
Some of these are from the 90's, but I listen to them all, every year. Neil Diamond has the best rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and also a christmas song I don't like, except when Neil sings it, "The Little Drummer Boy."
I have multiple Harry Connick Christmas cds. I believe he has three! My two favorite tracks on this one, are "Sleigh Ride", with full orchestra, and he has the BEST Ave Maria, just playing piano and singing.
I have two Vanessa Williams Christmas albums. She combines my favorite Christmas song, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" with a negro spiritual "Mary Had a Baby" and it is beautiful. It evolves into a full gospel choir, joyful version of the song. She has several songs I'd not heard before either, such as "Gracious Lord Sheppard."
Going back to 90's Christian artist greatness, I have several Christmas cd's from Amy Grant and Michael W Smith. Dan prefers Amy's first collection, which contains the beautiful "Breath of Heaven", (also known as Mary's song) but I also love her newer CD, which has a fun version of "Mr. Santa" sort of a 1940's swing style rendition, and the very reverant "Agnus Dei", which was written by Michael W. Smith.
My favorite track on Michael's cd is "Welcome to Our World." It's a more modern Christmas song, with a beautiful melody and lyrics.
I also look for sounds from different genres, such as country. Probably my favorite twangy country collection would be Sammy Kershaw's. You've got to be in the right mood to hear it. Another unique sounding collection is Jewel's "Joy: A Holiday Collection."
Last year at Starbucks, I picked up a holiday compilation that included Frank Sinatra's version of Jingle Bells. There is spelling in it..."I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells!" Kids love any song with spelling in it. Joey loves this song, and we have discovered we can listen to the song (and sing along) 3 times on the commute to school in the morning. Another rare compilation that you must have if you are doing a Christmas party for children, is a charity CD done by Rosie O'Donnell in the 90's "A Very Rosie Christmas". You get some one of a kind sounds on here....Donna Summer singing a disco style "Have a Very Rosie Christmas"...(great voice, and she's deceased now, you know!) Ricky Martin's "Aye Yaye Yi It's Christmas", and my favorite Smashmouth Rendition..."I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas", which Smashmouth performed better than anyone before or since. Kids love it.
Of course I have several Manheim Steamroller cds as well. A lot of the above are these are old, and you can find them on amazon for $3.99 to $6. Emily and Zach have an aversion to Christmas music. Probably because stores start playing it too soon. I'm just firing mine up today, on December 9th.
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