Tag - Holidays

My favorite Christmas carol is “O Holy Night” and I’m particularly fond of the way Robert Goulet sang it. My parents had a great Christmas album with it on it, but sadly, Bob Goulet’s version is not to be had on iTunes. Josh Groban does a nice job, too, but nothing beats Robert Goulet’s deep, soothing voice. If I had any idea how to go about doing it, I’d get my parents to rip the whole album on to a CD for me.

My next favorite would be “Do You Hear What I Hear.” I love the story.

I like Bob Seger doing The Little Drummer Boy. Something about his gruff voice singing that tender song with a great drum in the background just gets to me.

And of course, Bruce Springsteen singing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town in concert”…my favorite part is when Clarence Clemons starts “ho ho ho”ing and Bruce starts cracking up.

And it just wouldn’t be Christmas without Elvis singing “Here Comes Santa Claus.” ( Ha! You thought I was going for “Blue Christmas”, didn’t you? No, those “we-oo-we-oo-wees” are just too much. ) Elvis sings all of the verses but the best parts are the lines “Santa knows that we’re God’s children, that makes everything right” and “Let’s give thanks to the Lord above that Santa Claus Comes tonight.” Sing it, Elvis!

However, you have not lived until you’ve seen our family break into Feliz Navidad. We heard it a couple of times during our cruise (you didn’t think I’d go a whole post without mentioning it, did you?). I want to apologize to anyone on Deck 6 who was trying to nap while we went singing and dancing down the hall. I’m afraid we got a little loud. Let’s blame Philip.

So what are you favorite Christmas carols?

So how was your Thanksgiving?  Ours was low key and peaceful.  I forgot about the Macy’s parade since that’s never been part of our West Coast Thanksgiving.  The only year I’ve seen it was last year.  We watched it in the hotel in the morning while packing up to move into our new house later that day.

We only watched the first half of the Cowboys game.  I don’t care for the Cowboys and my team is having a losing decade (Phil says they’re rebuilding) and never plays on Thanksgiving.  Still, I haven’t seen a football game in a while and I thought it would be fun.  Boo enjoyed watching with me, but unfortunately for him, it led to the revelation that he’d been playing tackle football with some of his older and much bigger friends when they’d been told not to.   We had a good discussion about death and dismemberment and the dangers of football without padding.

Dinner was wonderful, especially since we ordered it from the Club this year.  Very delicious!  They improved their sweet potatoes from last year, bringing the whole meal up to the same quality I would make.  The pumpkin pie was even better than mine.

Later, we all watched that traditional holiday movie, “Star War Episode 2.”  By the end, Bip had added “Bobo Fett” to his vocabulary.  And when it was time for desert he learned to say, “punteen pie.”  He was so thrilled that he went around to everyone, letting us know that something good was coming.  “Boo!  Punteen pie!”  “Yes, Bip, we’re having pumpkin pie.”  “Daddy!  Me-a punteen pie, too!”  “Yes, Bip, you can have some pumpkin pie, too.”  “Yay! Punteen pie!”

But the best moment was before dinner, when we went around the table, everyone saying what they are thankful for.  Do you do this too?  Bip, as he always does when he prays, listed his favorite people:  Boo-a, Puntin Girl (or a close rendition of her real name),  Mama, Daddy, and to our great surprise and  delight, he added someone else for the first time.  He said, “Becky.”  Then he paused and added, “baby.”  Yes, we are all thankful for Becky Baby.

Greetings from the Skywalker Family –
Anakin “You Can Call Me Darth” and Padme,
our children Luke and Leia,
and don’t forget Yoda!

Boo carved his own pumpkin this year.

Happy Birthday, Luke, I am your father.

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope!

We had a great time this year! We loaded Yoda and R2D2 in the wagon, along with the iPod playing the Star Wars soundtrack. I’m not sure everyone got that our characters were a family, but they all liked the overall theme. Yoda really made the whole thing. One group of kids was talking about how one family dressed up as the Incredibles last year. “They even had Jack Jack!” “Jack Jack, too?” “Yeah, it was cute.” I turned to her and said, “That was us!” Very funny.

Last Halloween our whole family got into the spirit of things and we went as this famous family:

Mr and Mrs Incredible, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack.

It started off with Boo wanting to be Dash, then we realized that with her long, black hair and big eyes, Pumpkin Girl was the definitive Violet.  But it was Bip as Jack-Jack that really pulled the whole thing off.

So we had quite the discussion of what to go as this year.  After the unforgiving Elastigirl costume, I wasn’t too thrilled with being anything less than a pumpkin this time.  But more creative heads prevailed and we have our family costumes selected and bought.

Any guesses?  I’ll give you a couple of clues.  It’s a family, but far from a traditional one.  One of the children has to be someone that isn’t related to the rest of us, but is related to the theme.  If you know me in real life, you probably already know – so keep it quiet.  But the rest of you – leave me a comment with your best guess as to our family’s costumes!