For Your Viewing Pleasure--The Christmas Story as told by Muppets

One of my very favorite Christmas shows is "John Denver and the Muppets--A Christmas Together". I have two copies of the CD plus the music is downloaded to my iphone. I tried for years to get the video. Last year, my sister found a copy and sent it to me.

And tonight I found one of my very favorite scenes from the TV show. The scene that actually tells you what Christmas is all about.

Enjoy and welcome the Christmas season with this quick clip!

Because we all need a hobby....

You know that family you see that wears matching outfits. Yeah, that would be us. I loved matching my kids and took a real joy in finding outfits when our first boy joined our crew--a true challenge I relished to conquer! 

Every Christmas and every Easter, I spent months putting together finding the perfect outfits to make us look like the sweet little matching family:

And I was happy.



Until one day Miley decided she was sick of matching her sister (I will admit that since Sarah's birth, I dressed both Miley and Sarah alike for years) and on top of that Sarah was sick of wearing a dress, outgrowing it and then finding a hand-me-down just like the dress she out grew. There was no variety but rather a year of repeats. The girls flat our refused my matching game.




So last Christmas, I searched and searched for a way to make us match yet not in an obvious Hanna Anderson family matching set kind of way. My mother sent to different red dresses for the girls and I found suits for the boys that included a small red stripe detail in the pattern.




(Yep--my profile pic!)

Now this year, I am working with the girls to find the right dresses. Amazingly the dresses Grandma sent last year still fit and since we won't be in Dallas this year, we may just (gasp) repeat.

As for the boys--oh my boys. At this point, they love to match. But Dino only likes to wear Crewcuts. And Crewcuts does something I never thought anyone could do--they make Hanna Anderson look cheap. So I am wondering if those suits might fit--they were awfully big on them this year. ;)

So the end of our days matching in public are over but rest assured we will still all be in our matching PJs for the Christmas picture.

Because I have a warped sense of humor--that's why!

I have a fantasy. I have friends over during the holiday season and put on what I like to call my 'favorite playlist'. I brag about how awesome the music is and how I have just the best taste in music in the world and then I turn on the music.

Then out blares "Last Christmas" by Wham--the absolute worst Christmas song ever. 

(Yes, my opinion  but have ya heard it? Reallly.) 

This follows with anything from the Jingle Cats.

And in the meantime, I will be dancing, smiling and singing (or meowing). 

I wonder--would my friends be polite and just nod their heads or would they tell me the truth--it was the worst music they ever heard. I'd like to think they would be honest but we are in the South so who knows. Regardless, I am betting their expressions would be priceless.

Warped? Yeah, I'll admit that :)

Anyway, I think I really want to make the 'worst Christmas music playlist' and carry out my fantasty. 

Any songs you think I need?

(I'd like to say "Christmas Shoes" is the worst song but for some reason people think a kid going to the store on Christmas Eve to buy his dying mom a pair of shoes on Christmas Eve and scamming another customer out of his money  is sweet--I call it sappy. I mean how do we know mama is really dying or did he just practice the little 'Sir I wanna buy these shoes' speech just so he could spend his money on some Transformer he had his eye on? And if even if the kid is telling the truth,  do you really want to hum a tune about a dying mama and a broken hearted poor boy while filling out Christmas cards for friends? Again--I'm warped but in my defense it was named in the 52 most depressing songs, "I Hate Myself and I Want To Die.")

Music to My Ears

(Press play to listen and enjoy.)

Now that the costumes are placed ever so loving in the dress up clothes and the Great Pumpkin has taken the candy, I can finally play my Christmas music!

Really I just love Christmas music. My very favorite Christmas song of all-time is the one you hear, " The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. I don't know what it is about this song but it manages to give me chills and a warm fuzzy feeling all at the same time. It just pure perfection!

My favorite Christmas album/CD is "White Christmas" by Elvis Presley. Honestly, your Christmas collection is not complete with this one. Every song from the ever popular "Blue Christmas" to the gospel favorite "Peace in the Valley" is just heavenly. And let's face it--no one can sing like The King.

Then of course, I have lots of other must-haves (for me anyway) from  Sinatra's "Old Fashion Christmas" to the more modern Josh Groban and Michael Buble hits. Oh and absolutely every Christmas song from John  Denver--esp. the Muppets "Christmas Together" ones. 

To date I have 4 unique playlists on my iPhone--"Joy to the World"--breakfast playlist; "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"--daytime playlist; "A Christmas Dinner"--dinner playlist; and finally "Oh Holy Night"--relaxing night playlist.  The playlists equal close to 7 hours of music (and that is not all the music I have, trust me). To say I have a lot of Christmas music would be an understatement. Yet, I am always on the search for music I have never heard, music that brings the feeling of Christmas to my soul. So I'd like to know--What is the Christmas song that means Christmas to you?

I hope you enjoy the music on this post today. I hope it helps to lift your spirits and bring some joy in this rather frazzled time we live in. And if the music doesn't warm  your soul...perhaps you'd like some blurred warm coco with hand-made marshmallows we made today :)

 

There was nothing said about the food....

As I have been mentioning (each time I see a Christmas catalog), I love Christmas. And because some direct ancestor of my husband is either Scrooge or the Grinch, I am only allowed to listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas CDs after Halloween. It is very hard to be strong--I can almost smell the spirit of Christmas--the turkey, the pies, the cranberry sauce...or is that smell coming from my kitchen on this sunny October 85 degree day in Dallas?

Why it is!

See today at the grocery store, I clutched my list and made my way through the produce trying very hard to watch prices and stay in budget. And then I saw them. A beautiful little box of fresh organic cranberries--so plump, round and red. I had to have them. I could not leave them there. They had to be in my cart. And that is where they went.

When I got home, I told the girls I was making some orange cranberry sauce to go with dinner that night.

"Mom," Miley giggled. "It is not Thanksgiving. It's not even Halloween." (The scrooge blood runs strong through her little veins.)

"Well honey, "I had to think fast. "You know I like to try out various side dishes before Thanksgiving to make sure it will be OK."

"So what kind are you making?"

"Orange fennel."

She shook her head. "Mom, we had the orange fennel cranberry sauce last year and I hated it because I hate fennel."

She had me. I was busted by the ten year old with the memory of an elephant.

"Well, I wanted to make this again to compare to the new stuff," I blurted out and began to zest the orange.

"Whatever. Have you bought the High School Musical 3 tickets yet?"

"After we enjoy the cranberry sauce and ham dinner--without complaints," I smiled.

The magic of HSM works again ;)

WW-Yes we are THAT family in the matching PJs on the Christmas Card

You have to wait til Christmas to see the whole family (including VB daddy) in PJs ;)

Update--*This is last Christmas--the husband/children would throw a fit if I dressed them up for Christmas now ;)

Don't forget you have til 11:59 pm to enter to win an iTune gift card--and you have a very good chance of winning!

See the New Widget?

My countdown to Halloween--I snagged it from Amanda :)

Shocked that I would be excited about a holiday that gives kids bags of sugar, fake food coloring, high fructose corn syrup and plain old sugar highs? Well, shhhhh.....it's not really about Halloween.  It is really about a deal I made with my family a few years back. See, I love and I do mean LOVE Christmas--the lights, the spirit, the holiday shows and most importantly the music. I love Christmas music. I dare say I may very well have one of the largest Christmas music collections in the world--I have over 30 CDs and 200 or so songs on the Christmas playlist. 

You name the song, odd are I have it. And I love to listen to it all the year long. My husband and kids--not so much. They prefer to keep Christmas in December. I say 'Bah Hambug' to that. Then one day in April a few years back, my daughters begged me to turn off my John Denver Christmas CD when we got to the school parking lot.

"Please, I will die if anyone hears," began the ever socially aware Miley.

Sarah nodded, "Beside, it's Easter time NOT Christmas."

So rather than letting them jump out of the car, I turned it off in favor of the classical radio station.

Once again my own family, the family I feed, clothe and pick up after began the war against my Christmas music.

"When you hear it all the time, it's not special when Christmas comes," the husband begged.

I looked at my family and knew it was time for a compromise. 

"Christmas music is too good to be limited to once a month, "I mumbled as they again said Christmas music should be played in December and December alone.

"Fine," they said. "Could you wait til after Halloween?"

I sighed. That would give me one full month and the family, "Hmmmm...would you complain on November 1?"

"No," they smiled and and agreement was met.

And now the air is a little cooler and fall is here at least in theory. Christmas catalogs are arriving in the mail and I admit I have slipped and played the holiday genre playlist from time to time--I told my children I was merely looking for some Halloween music. Halloween is a holiday, right?! I even tried to explain how spooky the words were--chestnuts roasting over a hot fire while a man named Jack bit your nose.

There was no fooling them and the Christmas music has been banned until Halloween. So now I wait for the day of witches and nasty teeth rotting candy (not that my kids eat that--they gladly give it all away, really. How? That my friends is a post for another day, promise.)

But I just might sneak in one song from that cute Michael Buble Christmas CD when not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse....