Merry Christmas!

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. - Burton Hills


Merry Christmas everyone. May Peace and Love be your gifts at Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Over the weekend, we got slammed by a snowstorm. I was hoping that the meteorologists had it wrong like they normally do. But no, this time they got it right. By the time the storm was over, we were buried under 18 inches of snow. Yuck! I am not a fan of snow. I am not a fan of winter. Living in the DC area, we are not used to this much snow. It's very rare they we get hit this hard. Or this early. Our "snow months" are end of January and all of February. The last time we had a major snow storm like this was in 2003. So I guess we can say we were due for another one. Of course, the Christmas-y people were so excited and happy because we're going to have a white Christmas. Who says Christmas has to be white? A song? Whatever! My son is ecstatic because his Christmas vacation started early. Our county decided the hell with it, let's just not have school Monday - Wednesday. Wednesday was going to be an early dismissal anyway. I decided to stay home from work today because...well, just because. I cleaned off my car yesterday. It took two hours and it was not fun. I slipped and fell TWICE. The second time I fell, I hit my head on the snow shovel handle. This is why I hate winter and think that snow is evil.

Somewhere underneath all that white powder is my car.

As you can see, I'm thrilled to be out in the cold and snow.

Of course he's cheesing, he doesn't have to do all the work!

Because I was home today, my son harassed me to finally put up our Christmas tree. So I gave in. I mean, it is the week of Christmas and I guess I should have something to put the presents under. We have a cute little 4 footer (we live in a condo so I refuse to buy a "real" tree) that already has lights on them. I always add a strand of lights because I like a bright tree.

Now I need to finish my Christmas shopping. Was going to finish over the weekend, but the Blizzard of 2009 but a damper on those plans. Ugh! This is why I hate winter.

I'm hoping to get an infusion of Christmas cheer pretty soon. I don't want to be The Grinch on Christmas day!

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!

Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas. The weather was nice. It was sunny and in the 40s. Darrius managed to sleep in until 7:3oam. I told him we have to wait until 8am to open the presents. He patiently waited, which was suprising. Darrius had a great Christmas because Santa brought everything he asked for. His favorite present was the game Rock Band. He got the entire set - guitar, drums and microphone. Alfred managed to surprised me this Christmas. After much fussing and complaining, he bought me a new laptop. Yay! My old laptop's at least years old and it is slow as mud and likes to get attacked by viruses. I was not expecting a new laptop. I also received another shocker...a new cellphone...the Blackberry Storm, no less! I was shocked. I'd mentioned in passing how if I'd known that phone was going to be coming out, I wouldn't have upgraded over the summer. I wasn't hinting for a new phone cause I knew we'd have to pay full price for it. What I really wanted for Christmas was the iPod Touch. But no complaints from me. My birthday is in a couple of months so maybe I'll get a new iPod then. :-) My hubby is so generous!

After opening presents, we headed to my parents house for Christmas Brunch. The food was delicious as always. After brunch we opened presents. My dad played Santa Claus.

After we finished opening gifts, we decided to play Rock Band. Darrius brought the guitar and the microphone to my parents house. It was TONS of fun. My favorite song on the game is Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. It's the only song that I know. :-) So we spent a couple of hours playing the Wii (we moved onto Wii Sports after we exhausted every song in the Rock Band playlist).

Here's a clip of Ricky and Julianna singing "Roxanne" by The Police. Darrius is on guitar. The sound quality may not be that great. Poor Adrian was crying in the background. I didn't think the singing was that bad! LOL!

We spent most of the day at my parents house even though we were supposed to leave around 4pm to go to Alfred's aunt's house. We didn't get there until 8pm and mostly everyone had left. Oh well. I hope Christmas doesn't come around so quickly next year. I really wasn't prepared this year but managed to pull it off somehow.

All in all, it was a great day. Any time spent with family is always a great day.