Like my main rule, no Christmas music before Thanksgiving. First Halloween, then Thanksgiving, THEN Christmas. Get it straight, retailers. I love Christmas music, just at the right time of year. I especially love *my* holiday playlist, which includes Michael Bublé (shock!), Frank Sinatra, Brian Setzer's orchestra, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and a few of the Carols for Cure CDs which support Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
I'm most enthusiastic about the last set of CDs. It's holiday music done by Broadway actors. Aside from supporting a great cause, the music is pretty great. Some of the songs are interpreted in the style of the show that the singers were doing (concurrent with the recording), and some are the classic arrangements performed by wicked talented singers. (I put all my holiday music into iTunes, make sure the genre is tagged with "Holiday", and play it all on shuffle.)
On a more traditional note, we went to see MiddleJ perform in The Nutcracker last night. I'm not normally a fan of ballet, but I am MiddleJ's biggest fan, and not in the creepy Kathy-Bates-in-Misery way. (By the way, thanks Steven King. Way to ruin a perfectly nice sentiment.) MiddleJ is incredibly talented, and I find more and more to enjoy about the performance every year.
This year, it was the wicked adorable little kids in the production, mostly the ones playing mice, soldiers, and the cutest of all, the lambs. Watching little kids do ballet is ADORABLE. They remind me of a herd of puppies- cute and enthusiastic, which upstages all of the fancy-pants ballet dancers. (This is scientific proof that enthusiasm trumps talent, for the record.)
In any case, at the end of the show, I took the opportunity for a knitterly photo-op:
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| (The photo is blurry, but my photographer is tall and handsome. You understand.) |
Is that you holding the knitting bag off to the side? ;)
ReplyDeleteHere here! I totally agree with your main rule of Christmas. I know that some start the tunes in Oct, but I am waaaaay too sick of it by Christmas.
ReplyDeleteAnd events trump shopping any day of the season. Glad you and you're knitting are enjoying yours.
There is certainly something about Christmas shows with kids that really helps my holiday spirit. My daughter will be in her 5th Nutcracker this year - first time as a party child, and she is pretty pumped. I'm curious about these lambs - we have reindeer for the wee ones, and they do indeed steal the show!
ReplyDeleteJasmine, which Carols for the Cure albums do you have? I didn't know about this and since I lost my sister 2 years ago to the dreadful disease, I like to support any and as much as I can towards the research for it.
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