Merry Christmas, Vixens!!!
Thank you for letting me share my favorite holiday music with you!!!
Original source unknown.
May we all receive the gift of peace today and in the new year.
Peace in our lives, peace in our hearts, peace in our world.
Gladys Knight: Let There Be Peace On Earth.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Original source unknown.
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Courtesy: Sanctuary United Church of Christ (original source unknown)
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or whatever celebration you choose.
There is only one choice for today’s song. All I had to do was pick which version from all the many wonderful ones to choose from.
I finally settled on this one. The musical arrangement is stunning. And the singer performs it beautifully.
Faith Hill: O Holy Night.
Here’s another cover of the song that I cannot get enough of. Yes, it may be totally irreverent, but that does not make it any less funny.
Courtesy: Comedy Central.
From South Park: Eric Cartman’s version.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening & Merry Christmas!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Today’s post will also feature some of my decorations. I hope you enjoy them!!!
After I put the ornaments on the tree, I light it up to see how it looks before I add whatever topper I am going to use. It’s like my seal of approval that the tree is ready. This was the first picture I took to check it and I was so happy with how pretty it turned out. I love real trees, especially the chubby ones!!!
Here’s a look at it during the day, I usually do not do themes for Christmas. I prefer to focus on the colors of the season that I enjoy the most, like green, silver, white or natural hues like from the raffia bow.
I absolutely A-D-O-R-E adding some greenery to an Ironstone pitcher. The color of the pine needles just pop in the neutral container. It also adds some wonderful fragrance to whatever room I put it in. This is one of my bed side tables so I can inhale the heavenly scent all night long!!! And I love the contrast of the rich white pitcher and the rusty goodness of the cabinet. I found it exactly like this and could not resist the wonderful patina. Swoon!!!
I used this child’s Windsor chair-my very first purchase from my very first Brimfield trip in 2005-to give a few cherished items a place of honor. Many, many years ago I went to my first day-after-Christmas sale. I lived near a Fortunoff’s store and they had an entire second building next to the main store dedicated to Christmas for the last three months of the year.
Since it was 100 years ago, that was unheard of…..and a sight to be seen. When I went for my yearly decoration search, the clerk at the register mentioned the big sale the day after Christmas. I do not know why I had the day off-perhaps Christmas fell on a weekend like this year. Anyway, I knew that meant I was going to the sale. I spent Christmas day with my grandmother and my aunt, and we all decided to go together.
The snowman was the first thing I saw at the sale that I wanted, and luckily there were a number of them so I had no problem snagging mine. We looked at decorations for hours, just taking in all the exceptional items the store carried while making our way through the hordes of other shoppers doing the same thing. Then my grandmother spotted the Holy Family figurine (mixed in with other religious statues) and she became a woman obsessed. She got right in the middle of the huddle and was tossing boxes side to side trying to find the one she wanted. My aunt and I started helping her, and finally my grandmother found it-at the same time my aunt found one for herself. Success all around.
After our shopping trip, we decided to have lunch at a nearby diner. As we were sipping our hot beverages of choice, my grandmother pulled the figurine out of the box to give it a closer look….or so I thought. She placed it on the table between our plates, then reached for the box and placed it in front of me on the table. Then she slid the figurine over to me.
“You take it home,” she said.
I told her no, that she wanted it and worked so hard to get it, that she should treasure it.
But she shook her head no.
“I have a nativity set. I bought this for you,” she said. “You need to at least have the Holy Family in your house for Christmas.”
She was like Linus in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” reminding me what Christmas was all about.
My grandmother raised me. She cooked and cleaned for me, took care of me when I was sick, listened to Bruce Springsteen with me and taught me how to cook. She shared my joys and my heartaches with me. She also made me nuts and gave me gray hair. But I know she loved me without question. When I think of her pushing through that crowd and digging through those boxes for me, I remember how she fought to give me back my faith when I was struggling with it. And it was not through her well honed tactics like guilt, lecturing, yelling or fighting. It was important enough for her to to show me by making a gesture. A quiet, enormously grand and loving gesture. And one of my most cherished Christmas memories ever.
Hence, the place of honor 🙂
Today’s song is from “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”. It is one of two songs sung by Sam the Snowman, who narrates the story. I know he was not real, but to me he seemed so much more “alive” than Frosty. Sam was wise, kind and very smart. Frosty just melted.
I love both songs Sam sings, but this one I love just a bit more.
Burl Ives: Holly Jolly Christmas.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Original source unknown.
Today’s song is for the adults traveling to their childhood home for Christmas;
For the college kids going home for the semester break;
For the soldier who’s tour just ended & is en route home;
For the person who has been sick but is now well enough to go home;
For the estranged member of a family who is forgetting the grudge that took them away;
For the friends getting their guest rooms ready for their visitors to arrive for the holidays;
Original source unknown.
For the grandparents waiting for their grandchildren to come home;
For anyone who found a home this year;
For anyone who rescued a dog this year;
For those still so far away from home but will see their families through Face Time;
For the wounded hero finding comfort in a new home;
For those who look forward to finding home and hearth in the new year;
For those just happy to be around for another Christmas.
This song is for you.
Kenny Loggins: Celebrate Me Home.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Original source unknown.
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Courtesy of: The City Sage (original source unknown)
Today’s pick was an easy choice. My Christmas season is not complete until I hear this song by Elvis Presley himself. Let’s be real-there was not a piece of music the King sang that I did not like. His delivery was always impeccable with just the right amount of emotion in his velvety smooth voice. Combine that with the heavy bass line and the fantastic back-up singers and you have one heck of a song.
But as much as I love Elvis’ Blue Christmas, I remembered another version of this song that I love, too. It is by an artist who died on his 79th birthday in April. Another country music star who had that heavy-drinking-fast-living-outlaw persona but that started from his past as a convict while he was in his late teens and early 20’s. While in jail he realized that all he would get for a life of petty crimes and robberies were those steel bars, so he began to turn his life around, especially after seeing Johnny Cash’s San Quentin concert in 1959.
Courtesy of: Elvis.com
This artist’s version of Blue Christmas is acoustic and his voice is much edgier than the King’s, bit it still works. Maybe because I’m a fan, maybe because I am sorry he is gone, maybe a little of both. The last time I saw him perform was on the 2014 Grammy Awards. where he sang with his buddies Kris (sa-woon) Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. Some of his hits include “If We Make It Through December“, “Silver Wings“, “That’s The Way Love Goes” and “Bar Room Buddies“, a duet with Clint Eastwood from the movie “Bronco Billy”. However, he will probably best be remembered as an “Okie from Muskogee“.
Merle Haggard: Blue Christmas.
Merle Haggard Courtesy of: ABC News (original source unknown)
P.S. I found this on YouTube the other day, and I still have not stopped laughing. I am not a big fan of Porky Pig’s, but his performance.of this song is just too funny!!! Enjoy!!!
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Courtesy: Country Living Magazine
Today’s pick was one of my mother’s favorite Christmas carols. If I close my eyes tight enough I can practically see myself as a young girl standing next to her in church singing this song with her.
The version I chose is by a singer who has one of the most beautiful-and most powerful-voices I have ever heard. She is tied with Reba McEntire for the most nominations (17) in any vocalist category from the Country Music Association . While she has a lengthy repertoire of original music (including my favorite “A Broken Wing“), she has also covered such classics as Van Morrison’s “Wild Night“, Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night“.
Kris Kristofferson (Original source unknown)
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST FOR A MOMENT TO SWOON OVER KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!! .
(Thank you. I needed that).
I like that despite the strength of her voice, she does not over-sing every single note of every song she sings. She adds the punch when needed but sings softly as well. Her performance of this song is a perfect example of her impeccable balance.
Martina McBride: O Come All Ye Faithful.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy: Country Living Magazine
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Durango, Colorado Courtesy: TopValueReviews.net (original source unknown)
The singer with today’s song is another phenomenal soul and R&B singer. Like the others in the countdown, he got his start singing in church. That early training laid the foundation for the passionate delivery on almost every song he sang.
He recorded some music at Stax records and worked with the house band-also known as Booker T. and the MG’s-and Isaac Hayes, who would go on to win an Oscar for “Shaft”. This singer also wrote his own music, putting him on the same level as contemporaries Sam Cooke and Otis Redding; but, he is also known for a fantastic cover of the Beatles song, “Hey Jude“, which features a pre-Allman Brothers Band guitarist named Duane Allman.
Wilson Pickett and Duane Allman circa 1968 (original source unknown)
This singer recorded several Christmas songs, but this one is my favorite.
Wilson Pickett: Jingle Bells
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy: Cape Night Photography
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Courtesy of Pinterest (original source unknown)
Today’s song is by one of my all-time heroes, a man I love, adore and admire and the man I will eventually marry soon if his wife would stop hogging him already. I mean, she has had over 30 years with him-now she is just being greedy. I will let her visit the Oscar whenever she wants if that is what she is worried about.
Seriously, how refreshing that a man is so dedicated and protective of his music that he does not mess up that gift with drugs, or by letting some big box store use it in a campaign (that they hope will boost their sales in an effort to get the public to forget how bad they treat their employees, the environment or every small business in the free world) or even let even let the President of the United States get away with using his copyrighted music without his permission.
This year alone he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, he & the E Street Band had the #1 highest-grossing tour for the first half of 2016 according to Forbes Magazine, outdid his own extended show length and broke the record for the longest U.S. concert this year (4 hours, 3 minutes and 43 seconds).
President Obama presenting Bruce Springsteen with the Medal of Honor last month
(Original source unknown)
What was the other thing he did this year???
It is on the tip of my tongue…..
Come on, Michele, think……..
Oh, right…..
HE WROTE A BEST SELLING AUTOBIOGRAPHY!!!
Courtesy: Simon & Schuster
It debuted in the #1 spot on the NY Times Best Sellers list, was one of their top picks for 2016 and their critic Dwight Garner wrote: “Mr. Springsteen’s memoir is big, loose, rangy and intensely satisfying. It has not been utterly sanitized for anyone’s protection, and it is closely observed from end to end, especially on subjects like sex, art and social class. The Boss could have phoned this book in. He didn’t.”
Amen.
Garner’s review also included this gem:
“Bruce Springsteen’s song lyrics have injected more drama and mystery into the myths of the American road than any figure since Jack Kerouac.”
Ah, two of my favorite men in one sentence!!!!!
“Both an entertaining account of Springsteen’s marathon race to the top and a reminder that the one thing you can’t run away from is yourself.”—Entertainment Weekly
How true.
And the best gift of all, IMHO:
“He must be conceded a magic with words: He can spin not only a yarn but often an extended analysis, too…. His disclosures here are rich, deep, and useful to help destigmatize mental illness.”—Slate
I have written this before, but it bears repeating:
I love Bruce Springsteen for so many things.
But for that most of all.
And Jungleland, of course.
Courtesy: Eric Meola
Merry Christmas, Boss Man. Thank you for everything & congratulations on another incredible year.
Bruce Springsteen: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
P.S. An honorable mention to James Taylor’s cover, a jazzy-bluesy-piano-infused version that reminded me of Vince Guaraldi’s style from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy of: me!!! Foxboro Stadium, MA. 9/14/16
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
I had some technical difficulties yesterday, so today’s post will celebrate two songs to catch us up. Double the musical fun!!!
(Original source unknown)
The first song is by country music royalty. He grew up listening to hymns and folk songs to become one of the architects of Sam Phillips’ label, Sun Records. He brought an edge to country music, joined fellow country icons to become a Highwayman and for all intents and purposes brought the bad guy persona to country music with his “Folsom Prison Blues” song & concert.
And if his contribution to that genre was not enough, he covered many different songs from artists he admired like Neil Young (“Heart Of Gold“), Bruce Springsteen (“Johnny 99“) Nine Inch Nails (a powerful astonishing version of “Hurt“) and U2 (“One), to name a few. Yet, he will always be best know for his staple songs, namely “Ring of Fire“, “A Boy Named Sue” and “I Walk The Line“.
He was also one half of one of the greatest love stories of all time, proving to men everywhere that there is absolutely no shame in admitting you need a good woman by your side, and wanting her there as well.
Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash’s wedding day-March 1, 1968 (courtesy: JohnnyCash,com)
He took this Christmas carol and made it his own. He was, very simply, the Man In Black.
Johnny Cash: Silent Night.
Second pick:
Not too many people have actually written a Christmas song, only performed the classic ones. This singer has done both, and I really like some of her music from the early years of her career (mid to late 1990’s) until she moved to her post Tommy Mottola now-I-am-going-to-pepper-my-pop-sound-with-rap years. But there is no denying the power or beauty of her voice.
(Courtesy of Universal Pictures)
Call it a guilty pleasure, or a loyalty to someone else from my home region of Long Island, but I do occasionally listen to this singer and this song specifically at this time of year. If you are a fan of the film “Love Actually” there is no way not to enjoy this song. (And despite all the baggage surrounding her first acting performance in the movie “Glitter”, I thought her performances in “Wisegirls” and “Precious” were very well done.)
Mariah Carey, Melora Walters and Mira Sorvino in “Wisegirls” (courtesy of Loins Gate Films)
I love this video for this song so much better than the first one. It may not be Christmasey, but it is not cheesy, either.
Mariah Carey: All I Want For Christmas.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
(Original source unknown)
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Courtesy: Tea Green Chandelier
It is hard for me to believe that the same team behind the “Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer” TV special-Arthur Rankin, Jr. & Jules Bass-also came up with the story for the special based on today’s song, which was first recorded in 1951. Perhaps one of them worked for Walt Disney at some point because he seemed to enjoy creating stories around subjects who lost parents.
The main character of this special is an orphan, so I do not enjoy watching this Christmas show at all. I remember it being on our TV set year after year when I was a kid, but between the sad story and the operatic version of the song used in the special, I preferred to go to bed early rather than suffer through the show one more time.
But then I heard the song as a duet between Bing Crosby and the beautiful talented man we lost earlier this year-David Bowie (read my tribute here)-and suddenly the song was no longer the bane of my existence (I still hate the TV special, however. The story of an orphan is not Christmas fare EVER, even if that orphan got to play his drum for the Baby Jesus!!! A lot of kids with parents play the drum, too!!!)
David Bowie & Bing Crosby (original source unknown)
Over the years I have heard other fantastic recordings of this song, but today’s pick is my favorite. Why? Because it’s by Ray Charles. No other explanation necessary.
Ray Charles: The Little Drummer Boy
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy: Christmas Celebrations
Lilacs & Rust 