Merriment Monday: Christmas Music!

As far back as I can remember I have been a Christmas music junkie.  The apple did not fall far from the tree with me as my mother might be the only person I know who has more of this type of music than me.  She's just had more time to acquire it... I'm not joking here, if you look at the bottom the screenshot to the right you can see I have 1.9 days of music in my Christmas playlist... just the Christmas playlist.

Can you say "excessive"?  

So, how did this ridiculous playlist come about?  Well, I guess this is what happens when a) someone loves Christmas music, b) they love all types of musical genres and finally c) they adore creative reinventions of traditional music. 

Since I can't possibly do justice to all of the music I would like to share with you in just one blog post (or several for that matter) I'll give you some of my recent favorites.  Every year (since 2007 anyway) I have made an xMix of all my favorite songs from that year.  Now, we're only five days into December here, so I don't have a lot on my list for this year yet, but I can tell good things are coming. 

 So, here's some good tunes to get you going.  All of them can be downloaded on iTunes or Amazon for your listening pleasure (Amazon link provided):

God Rest You Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia 

Bells of Christmas - Orla Fallon - Winter, Fire and Snow

Winter Night - Little and Ashley (Free on Amazon! on 12/5/2011)

Born is the King - Hillsong - Born is the King

Now, if you want to get some more Christmas music for yourself, but don't really want to spend on yourself at this time of year, I have a solution for you.  One way to get music is through the iTunes single of the week, which in December is the Holiday Single of the week.  All you have to do, is go to the iTunes store and scroll down and you will see it there with a yellow corner and "free" on it.  Another great way to get free music is Amazon's 25 Days of Free, which allows you to download one free holiday related mp3 per day for the first 25 days of December.  I just love it.  Yes, every once and I while I don't particularly like a song, but really, 25 free songs.  Come on.... it's a no brainer!  

So with that, I leave you to enjoy some lovely and most likely free Christmas music.

Enjoy!

Ladies and Gentlemen... I am READY for Christmas!

All cookies have been baked, all knitting projects finished, all presents wrapped, now time to relax and enjoy Christmas.  Here are some pictures to help put you in the Christmas spirit.

Our tree, finally with some presents under it.

Pretty pretty bows and paper.

A fine example of the cat humoring me.  I'm amazed I made it out of that one with my skin intact.

I am Meowcutus of Borg.  You will be assimilated.  Resistance is futile. 

Some of what January has in store for me: SelfKniMo!

So, I haven't been posting many of my projects lately.  Gee, could it be that Christmas is encroaching and I have made more than a few gifts this year?  Perhaps.  Since I can't yet share the glory of my finished projects, I will instead share with you some of my plans for January. 

I am very happy wall the knitted items I have created over the past year.  Today I actually counted how many things I have made to date in 2009 and got a total of 50 separate items.  Bwah?!?!?  I know, it's crazy!  So, after working so hard over the past year, I decided I was up for some kind of self-reward.  Thus, I have declared this January to be selfish knitting month (SelfKniMo 2009).  SelfKniMo will let me get to play with all those projects I have mulling around in my brain that I have wanted to make for myself.

One of those projects I've just been dying to get on the needles is Never Not Knitting's Cedar Leaf Shawlette (click here for pictures).  A week and a half ago I finally broke down and ordered the kit for myself.  I had lusted after that pattern and yarn (pictured in front of our Christmas tree) for long enough to make me feel that I could justify the purchase.  The yarn is an amazing blend of half wool and half silk and is called Lady Godiva by Handmaiden of Canada (you can see their colors here).  When Brian saw the mixture of fibers he was convinced that the yarn was made by a sheep/caterpillar hybrid called a caterpeep.  Lol!  Did I mention how awesome my husband is lately?  He's so good and puts up with all the yarn and pointy sticks quite nicely.

The Cedar Leaf Shawlette is just one of the projects I have in store for January.  Oh yeah, if you think I'm slowing down on the knitting you're crazy.  The only thing that might take up some of my time is that my self-imposed learning-to-crochet ban will be over as of January 1, so I might sneak some easy crochet projects into the mix.  Then again, I have 5 knitting projects lined up for myself already, including a matching scarf, hat and glove set.  So.... crocheting might have to take a back seat until February.

10 on Tuesday: 10 Great Christmas Songs

There wasn't a theme for today, so I made up my own and decided to focus on music.  So here are 10 great Christmas songs for you to listen to to keep you merry:

1) Sugafunscary by Aliqua on their album All I Want - I found this album tonight when I was downloading today's free mp3 from Amazon's 25 Days of Free. It's a nice album overall if you enjoy a capella women's.  This song in particular is kinda funky and features the women in the group doing a lot of vocal percussion.  You can listen to the album samples and buy the album by clicking here.

2) Christmas Tree a single by Lady Gaga featuring Space Cowboy - Lady Gaga always makes things interesting and this single does not disappoint :P  You can preview and download the single for free by clicking here until Dec. 25th.

3) Last Christmas a single by The Glee Cast - I just adore the show Glee and basically everything they sing on it, so I had to include the single they released.  You can preview and download it through iTunes by clicking here.

4) Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses - Both Darth Coco and I love this song, so I had to share it seeing as she has already commented about it in the blog this year.  You can preview and purchase it through Amazon by clicking here. 

5) Sleigh Ride by Los Straitjackets on their album 'Tis the Season - what do you get when you combine traditional holiday songs and surfer rock?  Check this song out to find out!  You can preview the album and download it by clicking here.  They also have a new album out this year called Yuletide Beat.

6) Winter Song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson on the album Winter Songs - This is a neat album I found last year that is pretty mellow and has songs from a number of different artists.  It's really nice background music and the lyrics are beautiful.  You can listen to the album and download it by clicking here.

7) Personent Hodie on the album Christmas with the Cambridge Singers - My love of this song stems from my extreme music-geekness.  I was a music major in college and let's just say that my taste in music tends towards the eclectic.  I blame my musical oddities on all the genres I have been exposed to by school, my parents, and iTunes over the years.  Although, I really have to thank Jen T. for letting me know about this version in particular.  For some reason, I adore this melody.  I have 3 or four different versions of the song and enjoy them all, but I think this is my favorite one.  Unfortunately you can't download this album anywhere, but you can preview it and purchase a cd by clicking here.

8) Christmas Canon Rock by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on their album The Lost Christmas Eve - I swear that there is absolutely nothing that beats a rock version of a classic song.... I have quite a few favorites that were done by the orchestra including Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24).  You can preview and download the song by clicking here.

9) All On a Christmas Morning by Robbie O'Connell - Mom and I went to an excellent folk Christmas concert last year and we heard Robbie sing many great holiday songs.  This one was one of my favorites along with Mrs. Fogarty's Christmas Cake which I have already posted about.  You can listen and download this song for free by clicking here.  You can get a couple more of his songs for free by visiting his website.

10)  Ok, I've saved the three most eclectic songs for last in case you want to jump ship.  These songs are ones that I have performed in chorale when I was in college.  They are songs that were meant to challenge us vocally so they might not appeal to all.  But I want to share them because to me they bring out all the feelings I associate with Christmas.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do despite the fact that you didn't sing them at a Christmas concert!

• The Los Pastores movement from Navidad Nuestra, a mass by Ariel Ramirez - Everything from this mass is in spanish, which made it very difficult for my little college student mind to memorize.  But, memorize it we did and to this day I can sing along, which is kind of freaky since I sang this almost 10 years ago (shudder).  You can listen and download it by clicking here.
•  O Magnum Mysterium, a motet based on a mass by Tomas Luis de Victoria - This motet is in latin and traditionally sung by an all male choir.  I think it sounds best that way myself.  If memory serves me correctly the Chorale sang this at my first Vespers concert freshman year.  Instead of being in front of the audience, we had climbed into the two staircases leading up to the chapel and let our voices waft up the stairs and into the chapel.  I wish I could have heard how it sounded... another neat memory of this song was when the Chorale went to Italy to perform several concerts.  We were in Assisi sight seeing and were able to sing it in one of the huge cathedrals.  It was absolutely amazing.  I will never for get that experience!  Anyway, you can listen to this motet and purchase it by clicking here. 
• On This Day Earth Shall Ring by The Rooke Chapel Choir - This song is a staple of Vespers at Wheaton.  It would always be the last thing played before the concert was over and my Music advisor, Rev. Carlton Russell was the person responsible for playing the huge pipe organ.  For some reason this song has basically become the epitome of Christmas for me.  Maybe it's the grandeur or the familiarity of singing with the comforting sound of a pipe organ.  Whatever it was, the whole audience would sing the piece with us and we would recess to the back of the chapel for the last verse, which is always the piece de resistance.  I hope you enjoy it, for it is church music at it's finest.  You can listen and purchase by clicking here.
  

Planning For The Win!

Last year, around the beginning of December, I got the knitting bug. Determined, I bought some nice soft yarn (it's amazing how much your yarn preferences can change in a year) and set out to make scarves for the three women in my immediate family. I thought a month was plenty of time. I mean really, I was just making garter stitch scarves... how long could it take? Three weeks, hours upon hours of knitting, vaguely arthritic hands, and three days of being very ill later just days before Christmas, I found myself knitting the last scarf on the car ride to my in-laws on Christmas morning. I wanted to cry. Wait, I did cry... I was never going to finish in time and I had stayed as long as I could keep my eyes open the night before. Knitting on three hours of sleep with a 20 minute deadline was not exactly what I had signed up for.

So, this year, I decided I would have a plan. Over the year I really dove into knitting headfirst. I tried to learn all sorts of techniques from intarsia to lace, using the the internet as my guide and practicing to increase my speed and quality. It's truly amazing how much help you can get by using YouTube! Whenever I can't remember how to do a stitch or there s one I haven't heard of... SURPRISE! YouTube has a video for it. So, a few weeks ago I decided I better get my butt in gear and start making all those gifts I had ideas for during the year.

If you can't tell already, I am currently eyeball deep in my Christmas projects... amazingly I have finished a good chunk of them. There are sooo many things I want to share with you that I have made, but until these little projects find their homes on the 25th, I'll have to be patient. By the way, did I happen to mention....? Patience is not one of my virtues. So, to stem the tide of my eventual glee at posting them all, I have included a few pictures of my current work(s) in progress. Also, if you can't tell I've been playing on my computer a lot lately. Knitting really fills in during the down time of waiting for groups and flying. I love how my hobbies are complimentary despite their vast differences.