Christmas is almost upon us. All those hours of decorating, shopping and “ugly sweater” partying comes down to a couple of days.
In our family, Christmas is spread over a couple of days. The afternoon of Christmas Eve is spent at the home of my parents. Christmas Eve night is a bit of a puzzle. Traditionally, my mom’s family and her mom’s family get together at the exact same time in two different counties. For that reason, we compromise and alternate years. This year, we will go to her mom’s place.
Through the years, Christmas Day has been less hectic. We go to my brother’s home for breakfast with his family. For me, that used to be the end of it. We used to celebrate with my dad’s side of the family, but most of them are no longer with us. Since out marriage, we drive a couple of counties away to visit my father-in-law’s relations.
In other words, the next couple of days are going to be crazy. Of course, Christmas is like that for a lot of people. We are lucky that our families do not live half way around the world.
Drive. Eat. Open gifts. Drive. Open gifts. Visit. Eat. That is a ton of activity. Then, it is all over. The decorations come down. The food leftovers are put into Tupperware. Normalcy returns.
In anticipation of the craziness to come, let us explore the craziness of my iPod. Unfortunately, it will not be Christmas themed because there is only one Christmas song on the playlist. However, I will cheat a little and start things off with that solitary Christmas tune.
“Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie
“Green Green Grass of Home” by Porter Wagoner
“You Must Believe in Spring” by Tony Bennett and Bill Evans
“Mumblin’ Guitar” by Bo Diddley
“Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell
“Jump, Jive And Wail” by Louis Prima
“Soul Francisco” by Tony Joe White
“Season In Hell” by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
“Blood And Roses” by The Smithereens
“Farther Along” by Mississippi John Hurt
“Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row
“The Heart Of The Matter” by Don Henley
“Rockin’ The Joint” by Esquerita
“Walk Away Renee” by The Left Banke
“The Fat Man” by Fats Domino
“Mercado Muevo” by John Murphy
“Contempt – Theme De Camille” by Georges Delerue
“Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley
“Before Today” by Everything But The Girl
“Walk On By” by Dionne Warwick
If I do not get back to the blogging world before Christmas, then I hope everyone has a great one.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
You are lucky you still have a family. We knew we were finally grown up when we simultaneously realized we ARE the older generation. The senior generation. It’s a weird feeling.
It’s like a conveyer belt, and I am getting closer to the drop off point.
Yup. It’s a journey we all take, unless we die young. Over all, I’d rather get old.
“Jailhouse Rock” ! When Elvis was still Rockin’.
I heard that many Elvis’ songs are now free to use – passed Statute of Limitations? Something like that. Aw well.
Wishin’ you a joyous and White Christmas Rick !
Thanks. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
I resumed my sporadic efforts at converting my CDs to the lossless FLAC format and came across countless songs and albums that I haven’t heard in a long while. A version of “Green, Green Grass of Home” by Tom Jones came up yesterday.
Merry Christmas to you and the family!
Merry Christmas to you. The writer of “Green, Green Grass of Home lives down the road from us. His son told me that it has been recorded over 300 hundred times. In other words, he has made a living off of it.
Wow!