12 Days Until Christmas

I am not in the holiday spirit. Just call me Scrooge or The Grinch. Every time I hear a Christmas song on the radio, I immediately change the station and say "Ugh!" in disgust. I haven't started my Christmas shopping. I haven't decorated or brought out the Christmas tree. It's still sitting in the storage area, packed neatly in it's box. No, I don't do real trees. Never have, never will. I've decided that since it's getting close to D-Day (Christmas Day), I'm going to try to make the effort to be more cheerful and joyful. I figured I'd start with a blog post about my favorite Christmas movies and songs.

Christmas movies:

I watch this movie every year. It is a must see. I consider it a classic. My favorite part is when the squirrel jumps out of the newly chopped down Christmas tree and causes chaos and mayhem in the Griswold household.

I remember watching this movie for the first time in elementary school. It was right before school was out for Christmas break and we watched the movie in class. A classic holiday movie. How many kids tried to lick a flag pole after seeing this movie?

I thought this was a great take on the Charles Dicken's classic. Bill Murray was hilarious in this movie. And I love the Al Green and Annie Lennox duet "Put A Little Love in Your Heart".

This is not a traditional Christmas movie but it is hilarious! It's raunchy and Billy Bob has to be the worse mall Santa ever. I can't give any of my favorite quotes - this blog is a rated PG

Will Ferrell is Buddy the Elf. He finds out he's adopted and is looking for his real dad. This role was made for him. It's funny, heartwarming, and embraces what Christmas is all about. My favorite part is when he's introduced to the mailroom and says: It's just like Santa's workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms... and everyone looks like they wanna hurt me... Love it!

As you can see, I don't like the traditional Christmas movies. I love movies that make me laugh.

Here's some of my favorite Christmas tunes:

1. Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms - I love this song because it's upbeat and it always puts me in a good mood.
2. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by The Jackson 5 - My favorite line is: I'm gonna tell my daddy. Whenever I sing along, I giggle afterwards.
3. Give Love on Christmas Day by The Jackson 5 - The title says it all.
4. This Christmas by Donny Hathway - This is the African-American family Christmas song. I guarantee that it is played in every black home on Christmas Day.
5. Silent Night by The Temptations - Whenever I hear this song, it reminds me of being a kid, living in Memphis. The Temptations added some soul to this otherwise traditional Christmas song.
6. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole - I'm going to cheat a little and say the entire album is one of my favorites. My dad plays this CD every year while we're at the house on Christmas Day. This IS a classic Christmas album that everyone should own. You can't go wrong with Nat King Cole.
7. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey - The song is catchy and upbeat. I like any Christmas song that I can sing along with and not sound like a hoarse toad.
8. Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt - A sexy Christmas song.
9. Last Christmas by Wham! - My love of George Michael will never end. It's a pop Christmas song for the brokenhearterd. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. But the very next day, you gave it away."
10. Carol of the Bells - I love seeing it performed live. I love the many layers of this song. You have to have a great voice to sing it. Unfortunately, I don't. So I sing it vicariously through the great choir/chorus groups who perform.

There's my list of my favorite Christmas movies and songs. I'm hoping this will slowly get me in the Christmas spirit. I hate being Scrooge! It's no fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

What do you listen to when you workout?

Great music is an essential part of my workout. If I'm tired of the music on my iPod, then I'm not motivated to go to the gym. Sounds crazy, I know, but music really gets me going. And it helps push me through my workout when all I want to do is quit.

My "Running" playlist is one of my favorite playlists. It's a mixture of Dance, R&B, Reggae and Hip-Hop. I never get tired of listening to it. I think it's due to the variety of music I incorporated.  This is what my playlist looks like:

1. Get Me Bodied (extended mix) - Beyonce
2. Sexy Bitch - David Guetta feat. Akon
3. 3 - Britney Spears
4. Miles Away - Madonna
5. I Remember - Deadmau5/Kaskade
6. Get Low - Lil John
7. Gasolina - Daddy Yankee
8. In Da Club - 50 Cent
9. Scream - Starkillers
10. So Fine - Sean Paul
11. Poker Face - Lady Gaga
12. What Is Love - Haddaway

I have many more songs in that playlist. I always shuffle the playlist so that I'm constantly surprised when the next song plays.

There are a couple of albums that I listen to in its entirety when I'm working out. That's very rare. But these are so good from start to finish and has me jamming while I'm on the treadmill or weight machines.

David Guetta - One Love (a double disc delux. The second disc contains club/extended mixes of tracks from the first disc)

Madonna - Celebration (a double-disc Greatest Hits CD. It contains some of my favorite Madonna songs especially like her more recent Dance hits like "Sorry" and "Hung Up".

M.I.A. - Kala (I was vaguely familiar with M.I.A. I saw her video for "Boys" on MTV Jams. I really became a fan and decided to purchase her CD when she released "Paper Planes".

My husband makes fun of me because I'm always complaining about how I'm running out of space on my iPod. He tells me I need to stop putting everything I listen to on my iPod. Well that defeats the purpose of having an iPod!

New Music - Madonna "Celebration"

I don't think I've ever described myself as a Madonna "fan". I grew up in the 80s so I listened to her music. But I never had a desire to go to her concerts or buy all of her albums. Imagine my surprise when I decided to download her latest CD "Celebration her third greatest hits collection. I was in the mood for some new music and nothing else out there was garnering my attention. I perused the playlist and noticed that most of the songs on the CD were some of my favorites.  Perfect!  Purchase, download and transfer to my iPod. I start listening to "Celebration" a couple of days later while at work. And I was jamming!!! Song after song I kept thinking: "this was my song back in the day!" And then I started thinking back to middle school - 1985 - when Madonna had released "Like A Virgin."  Every girl dressed like Madonna and wanted to be Madonna. And I started thinking. I attempted to dress like Madonna. I had the plastic bracelets up and down both arms. I wore the ankle boots with the black socks. I rocked those boots with every skirt I had. I remember knowing all the choreography to her videos especially the concert video for "Dress You Up." What was I thinking? I am a Madonna fan! I still listen to her music. There are a couple of recent Madonna songs that are in my "Running Music" playlist on my iPod.

I love "Celebration". It takes me back to middle school. Those were great memories and great times. Some of my favorite songs from the compilation CD are:

• Burning Up
• Lucky Star
• Live to Tell (people sleep on her ballads)
• Like A Prayer (I will never forget fine-ass Leon in the video)
• Crazy For You (another great ballad)
• Miles Away (from her Hard Candy CD and also in my Running Music playlist)

Ok - let me stop before I give away the entire playlist! It's a great CD(s). I have been listening to it religiously at the gym, at my desk whenever I want to just sing along and pretend that I'm 13 again when life was so much simpler.