This Christmas is going to be special. As I mentioned in a former post, three of my four daughters will be coming "home to Colorado" for Christmas. So---I have a lot to do to get ready. On the "off years" when no one is coming home, I do the travelling. I go wherever my family has decided they want to spend the holiday. All I care about is spending time with loved ones. I really don't care about the location. I could be on a snowy mountain top or a sunny beach. It's fine with me. The people are what make it a special occasion.Since we'll be having Christmas at home, I've started a list of what to do and when to do it. Since there's SO much involved in this special holiday, I have to spread it around. And I'll post weekly on my progress.
Shopping: Got it done. Thanks to Black Weekend (I was traveling home to CO on Black Friday). What made it simpler was that so many of my loved ones wanted gift cards. I understand the appeal. I'm asking for a couple of them myself. So, now all I've got left is to order one more present online and it's done. Everything's in an upstairs bedroom waiting to be wrapped.
Holiday Baking/Cooking: Started this weekend by buying ingredients for my homemade Gingersnap Cookies. I put the recipe for this in the back of FLEECE NAVIDAD, along with several of my other holiday favorites I've developed and made over the years for my family. I also tried fellow Cozy Chick Deb Baker's Sugar Plums and they came out great! Of course, I always wind up tinkering with recipes (can't help it, it's my nature), so recipe came out with a little more honey and accidentally more allspice and deliberately more orange zest, because I love orange zest. But, honest, they smelled and tasted great. It was hard not to eat the dough. That's what always happens with my gingersnap recipe. The dough tastes SO good, you keep snitching as you're rolling it into balls.
Music: I really felt like the holiday season was starting last weekend when I attended a Colo State Univ choral concert. All four of the university's choruses performed different Christmas songs from many different composers, several sacred, medieval, and the old favorites like White Christmas. After each group performed, the conductor directed the packed concert hall in a favorite Christmas carol. That was so much fun. Nothing gets me into the spirit faster than singing Christmas carols. Also, the first part of the concert was a beautiful production of Menotti's short (45 min) opera, "Amahl and the Night Visitors." It's a sweet story about a crippled shepherd boy and his widowed mother who host the Three Kings on their journey to "follow that star." The music is beautiful. I remember hearing it in my childhood, and it's been a favorite of mine ever since.
Next, I'll start playing my collection of CDs with Christmas music. A two-volume set of Christmas carols and songs from a variety of artists that was produced years ago by Time-Life. I don't think it's available anymore, but it's my kids' favorite. Next, there's Christmas Songs with Frank Sinatra singing all the Christmas favorites. Then, Sing We Christmas by Chanticleer, and a gorgeous arrangement of old medieval carols and songs with voice and harp called Celtic Christmas.
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs or other holiday music?
15 comments:
One of the first Christmas music selections that is played is Handel's Messiah. This piece lifts my spirits and it really feel like the holidays when I hear "Hallelujah Chorus."
Then for some fun, I always enjoy the Chipmunks Greatest Christmas Hits.
I enjoy Bing Crosby's White Christmas and I'll Be Home for Christmas, and for a light-hearted song I enjoy Dean Martin's Baby It's Cold Outside.
You are so organized. I'm amazed.
Strangely enough one Christmas-themed song I love is Joni Mitchell's 'River'... a sad song about love lost. But it's Canadian, and the longing for snow and ice and cold comes through powerfully. Joni wrote it when she was living in Los Angeles and wishing for a Saskatchewan winter.
Looking forward to hosting you, Maggie, at Cozy Murder Mysteries on Friday for your article about writing Fleece Navidad!
Dru--I love the Hallelujah Chorus, too, and have performed it as a choral singer for a lifetime. The Univ choral singers did finish off the concert with all of them on stage singing that piece. Wonderful. And it was a good thing, because we had a bunch more snow on Sunday and winter storm advisory so I didn't get to the Messiah Sing Along that was held way on the east side of Ft Collins. Darn. It's always a favorite of mine, esp since I'm no longer able to sing regularly with a chorale.
The Chipmunks-----ahhhh, yes. Who could forget those squeaky little voices.
Mason---I love those songs and they're both on that Time-Life cd. Along with all the famous singers doing their signature pieces. Sacred and pop.
Don't be too amazed. I write it all down and then try to get it all done. pant, pant.
Hey, Donna--Great to see you here! Thanks for dropping in. And thanks for asking me. I really had a lot of fun writing that holiday mystery FLEECE NAVIDAD. I got to go over the top with holiday warm and fuzzies. Ohh, I forgot to mention in the article that there's even a pet lamb named Annie who gives Kelly's dog, Carl, fits. He wanders about the knitting shop sniffing things going "bahhhh" while Carl has to be obedient and stay in his "down." Reminds me of my own dear sweet Carl.
One of my favorite songs is "Santa Baby." Love that lazy, sexy tone.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is Lynn Anderson's "Ding-a-ling the Christmas Bell". And for some odd reason, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" always makes me laugh!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Finally got to see them live this year, and their shows are SO inspiring. I also love Handel's Messiah. My Christmas playlist is an eclectic mix (nice way of saying it's a mess), of Celtic, traditional, country, and "unique" things I've found over the years.
I remember that song, Kate. Oh, yeah. It was Eartha Kitt's sexy voice.
Signlady--Boy, I can't remember Ding aling the Christmas bell. but I do remember Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Funny. That was years ago, girl.
Hey, Shel, those kinds of lists are the best. Eclectic is my middle name. I love to mix things up and have a whole lot of things combined together. Enjoy!
Maggie, this is completely off topic, but I had to tell you, because it's all your fault. I picked up Dyer Consequences today, and could NOT put it down. Laundry went undone, bed went unmade, dishes sat in the sink - the only thing that did get done was chicken and dumplings for dinner! Oh, and I discovered I can't crochet and read at the same time. I have an insane amount of crocheting to do for gifts..and it's not all going to get done if I keep getting lost in your books!
(You do know this was all firmly tongue in cheek, I hope. Thanks for the hours of enjoyment :))
Shel, you have made my day. What a wonderful thing to hear. That's truly music to a novelist's ears. I'm SO glad you enjoy the knitting mysteries. And I hope you get all your crochet projects done.
You'll notice in the books that Lambspun has an Equal Opportunity table. There're knitters, hookers, spinners, weavers, quilters, stitchery folks---you name it, they're at the table. You ought to drop by sometime if you're in Colorado for sightseeing.
Lambspun is on my list of "must do things" if I'm ever in Colorado again. I have a confirmed case of "fiber fever", and am NOT looking for a cure!
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