Christmas Music

Every year growing up (that I can remember and that I was at home to remember), my parents and sisters and I would always set up allll of the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. My mom has quite the collection of nativities that are mostly packed in their own box for each piece that go in a specific place in the house. We also have a ton of ornaments. My mom had the great idea to start getting an ornament from our vacations to help us remember them as we decorated the tree each year. My absolute favorite one is a sumo angel complete with sumo wrestler "garb" (aka a thong) and wings. He is probably going to be the most fought-after item with my sisters after my parents die. My dad would always get the assignment of setting up the tree, which at one point in time was an artificial 12-foot tree. My mom bought a pre-lit tree a few years ago to help alleviate some of the holiday stress with stringing the tree with lights. Some of my favorite holiday memories envolve a certain parent grumbling and growling about the lights and getting poked with the tree. I can't blame them. My sisters and I would usually chuckle a little as it went on and then go set up some nativities far, far away in the house.

Anyway, the point of the story is to say that the first, and I mean the absolute first, Christmas music my mom would always put on was Barry Mannilow's Christmas CD. I don't love Barry Mannilow, nor his Christmas CD, but it doesn't seem like Christmas without it. Last year I bought Ella Fitzgerald's "Ella Wishes You a Swingin' Christmas" and I LOVE, love, love it. She has such a fabulous voice reminiscent of times past. What's on your Chrismas music list? We always listen to Handel's Messiah along with a few choice Weezer Christmas songs that are surprisingly fabulous. I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the Holiday season and that we can all remember the true reason of the season being Christ and His glorious birth thus saving us all.