Sounds of the Season

I spent last night making a new version of my favorite Christmas playlist.  You guys, I have a very love/hate relationship with Christmas music - I love, (LOVE!) traditional songs in traditional arrangements (where the melody is so beautiful you cry with the majesty of it), and the singers aren't too shrill (Mariah Carey) or too vibrato (Josh Groban AND Mariah Carey).  Seriously, though, there is no worse Christmas music than Mariah Carey (sorry, if you're a fan, but she is not my taste.) And if it doesn't make me FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS IS POURING OVER ME FROM THE SPEAKERS - then whatever.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

So here is the playlist that will be non-stop on my radio for the next month, and if you love traditional songs, that are achingly, hauntingly, spiritually Christmas try these...you may be able to discern certain preferences in artists and songs from this glimpse into my Christmas spirit.

• Song for a Winter's Night - Sarah McLachlan  (I heard this on the radio one morning -years ago- as my alarm went off and spent the next year of my life trying to track down the song and the artist.)                                                                                                                                     
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings - Barenaked Ladies/Sarah McLachlan (I love this arrangement so much, and when it turns into We Three Kings...."King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign...King and God and sacrifice - hallelujah, hallelujah worship Him God most high" /shivers)                                                                                                                    
• Belleau Wood - United States Navy Band (though I did not know the language the song was "Silent Night" then I heard my buddy whisper all is calm, and all is bright.)                               
• Do You Hear What I Hear - Carrie Underwood (Listen to what I say, pray for peace people everywhere!)                                                                                                                                               
• Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin (yes it is a little date-rapey "Say, what's in this drink?" also the woman is uncredited on my version, but I think it's more that she does want to stay but doesn't want to deal with judgy-judgersons tomorrow, "My maiden aunt's mind is vicious") Also I think this is the sole non-religious/spiritual song on this list - make of that what you will.                                                                                                                                    
• Silent Night - Kenny Chesney (Kenny and an acoustic guitar, quiet accompaniment after the first verse, you don't get more traditional that this rendition with literally no bells or whistles.)   
• The Holly and the Ivy - Mannheim Steamroller (You guys, I don't even know the words, but this is one of my favorite Christmas melodies and while Mannheim Steamroller can really get carried away by bold, brash, garish tricks in the arrangements this is one where they let the beautiful, traditional melody shine through.)                                                                            
• What Child is This - Lonestar (see: Silent Night above)                                                          
• Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella - Mannheim Steamroller (see: The Holly and the Ivy, when they get it right, they really get it right.)                                                                                  
• I Saw Three Ships - Sting (I just love the funky percussion in this one.  "And all the angels in Heaven shall sing on Christmas Day in the mornin'.)                                                               
• O Holy Night - Collin Raye (Not only is this just a lovely, traditional version akin to KC and Lonestar it also contains the rarely heard third verse, which is THE BEST VERSE!

  "Truly He taught us to love one another.  His law is love and his gospel is peace.  Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.  Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise His holy name.  Christ is the Lord.  Oh praise His name forever.  His power and glory evermore proclaim."

• Stille Nacht - Mannheim Streamroller (Chills, over here.  CHILLS.)                                         
• What Child is This? (Greensleeves) - Sarah McLachlan (She really nails the lullaby rhythm of this song. "Let loving hearts enthrone Him.  Let singing fill the earth and sky.  Joy, joy for Christ is born, the babe the son of Mary.)                                                                                                                                         
• Christmas Cannon - Trans-Siberian Orchestra (because do you know the only thing that will make Pachelbel's Cannon in D better?  Make it a Christmas song!)                                           
•  Silent Night - Sarah McLachlan (seriously, though, her voice is just so well-suited for Christmas hymns.)                                                                                                                                  
• Greensleeves - Mannheim Steamroller (Here is what Chip Davis writes about his arrangement,

"Because of the staggering number of requests for this, I decided to do it again (fourth time) for this album ...  This is an Old English folk song from around the time of Shakespeare.  I save the beauty of the entirety of the tune until the last of the arrangement as not to wear out its charm"

When the full power of melody plays at the end of the song - WOW.  It is my very favorite arrangement of this, my very favorite Christmas song.  

• Veni, Veni (O Come, O Come Emanuel - Mannheim Steamroller (My 8th grade choir sang this for our Christmas concert and I was bowled over by how beautiful it was, and is.  Again, from the liner notes,

 "When I decided to arrange this, I started looking for an unusual way to go about this arrangement.  The melody really reminds me of a Gregorian chant and I thought that would be very unusual to hear on a Christmas album.  It also seemed neat to accompany the chant with hand-bells ... as for the choir ... I thought the purity of the Cambridge Singers with "cathedral echo" seemed most appropriate.  As the arrangement and performance mediums got more unusual.  I decided to do the most unusual of all...translate it to Latin.  I asked my friend if he knew of anyone who could translate "O Come, O Come Emanuel" to Latin to add to the unusual approach.  He said, "Oh, it's already in Latin; in fact, it was written in Latin because it was originally a Gregorian chant." And was probably performed with hand-bells."                                                                                          

• Still, Still, Still - Mannheim Steamroller (I heard this song for the first time during 7th Grade Choir - another Christmas concert - and I fell in love with this quiet, peaceful lullaby.                                                 
• Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) - Mannheim Steamroller (So, of my 5 favorite Christmas songs Mannheim Steamroller's A Fresh Aire Christmas has 4 out of the 5 in absolutely divine arrangements. It is almost the perfect Christmas album.                                                            
• Were You There on That Christmas Night - Dickens Carollers (Another Choir Christmas concert song, one I love so much I kept the sheet music.  "Did you hear how the choirs of angels sang at the glory of the sight?  Did you hear how the bells of Heaven rang all through the night?  Did you know it was God's own son?  The salvation of the world begun?  Did you know it was love that was sent from above to the earth?"

5 Things – Carnival Magic Edition

1. Warm Chocolate Melting Cake has been renamed, but it is still my favorite dessert.
2. This sunburn hurt badly enough to spend $15 on cooling gel with lidocaine.
3. I was FREEZING about 80% of the time, and SCORCHING the other 20% - there was no in-between.
4. Brick will forever be known by the oldest and youngest of the Taylor daughters as nicely-shaped.
5. We may never know if Trevor got his massage.

Additional details to follow both here and over at 1000Places…

5 Things (Moving Edition)

I'm at the tail end of my fourth cross-country move in five years and there are some things that are true about doing this every time, for example:  it is stressful, mega-stressful, and things always go wrong.  Big things, small things, medium things.  There are always obstacles, and challenges, there are also always ways to overcome them.  You will always leave people you love behind. No matter how much you disliked your location, you will always say goodbye to a few really good people who have been extraordinary blessings in your life.  So, with this move almost over here are my

5 Things -2015 Moving Edition:

1. Logistically, this move is the smoothest I ever done.  Movers (on both ends) showed up exactly when they were supposed to, ABF (on both ends) showed up exactly when they were supposed to, most of my stuff was hella organized in numbered boxes.  I can't say if this is because I'm getting better at moving, or if the universe favors me being back in Texas, or if it was pure dumb luck, but wow, it is so much easier when things go well.
2. My car blowing up was a big thing to go wrong.  The biggest thing to go wrong in all my moves, but it actually wasn't the most stressful (those moving guys is Philly, that was stressful).  Despite being really bad timing the fact is, I was already planning to buy a new car within a few months of moving.  I had done some preliminary research on cars I'm interested in, and work for a company where I can use their rental rate regardless of whether I'm on company business.  Hopefully, I'm able to buy a new car tomorrow, and put this obstacle in the past.
3. I hurt my back the night before I moved from Long Beach.  I convinced myself that over the last week I was all better, but there is a giant pile of stuff sitting at the bottom of the stairs that disagrees.  In hindsight, I definitely should've gone and cleaned out the trunk of my broken-down car before the movers came - so they could schlep all that stuff upstairs as well.
4. There is a point in every move (from the moment you decide to move to the moment you come home to a new place and do nothing but veg out with your DVR) where you will be overcome with incredible homesickness.  This not a homesickness for a specific place, or specific people, but instead for just having a home - and a normal life, and until you find the new normal the homesickness just kind of hovers around you.  (I reached that point about a week ago, and I'm hoping to have a "normal" weekend next week.)
5. Ya'll I am done with Euro-style patio laundry and I am LOVING it!  (Although, having to wash every single piece of fabric makes the unpacking process a lot slower than normal.) Do you know how many loads of laundry I have gotten done today?  Enough that it would've taken me 4 days in Long Beach. FOUR. DAYS.

2014 Year in Review

I just finished reading my 2013 Year in Review and wow!  That was a great year.  2014 sucked donkey ass.  Seriously.   It was a hard year, and I'm glad it is over.  There were a few highlights along the way, though.

January/February - I spent the first two months of the year driving back and forth between Texas and Utah trying hard not to wear out my welcome in either place while applying for jobs in both.  Finally, within about 3 days in early February I was offered jobs in Utah, Texas, and surprise late-comer, Southern California.

March - I took the job in Southern California, despite having no actual desire to move to SoCal.  But, the job was a great opportunity, and, after getting my B.A,, I was trying to transition to a new career so I moved out to California.

April thru September - I was just struggling to hang on.  I hated SoCal, the new job came with a lot of intense challenges, and I was far away from any kind of support system.  I also had someone I considered a close friend do something that caused me to lose all trust and respect for her.  It was (and is) just donkey ass all around.


October - At the end of September beginning of October I managed my only vacation travel of the year.  I went on a cruise to the gulf of Mexico with Cort and some of her friends, and crossed Chichen Itza off my 1000 Places list.  It was so much fun, but the vacation ended sooner than expected when most of T3 had to travel back to Utah to say goodbye to Lexi.  I'm really glad they had the opportunity to visit with her one last time, and I feel pretty confident that she timed that on purpose during my supposed-to-be-visit.  Good one, Lexi, good one - the favorite aunt debate will continue.  :)

November - I surprised my folks and flew to Utah for Thanksgiving.  They were surprised and I had a wonderful visit.

December - A quick 3-day cruise to Mexico that was underwhelming, a bout of the something-I-thought-was-a-cold-but-maybe-was-the-flu (which resulted in me getting sent home from work), and another holiday surprise, Christmas in Texas with the nubbins I missed in October.

2014 was just a really, really difficult year, but a job location transfer is in the works to get me out of SoCal, and the job is (hopefully) smoothing out its rough edges, and maybe just maybe I will get to back to Europe in 2015.

Christmas in College Station

The nubbins were definitely surprised when I showed up on Christmas Eve and I had a blast visiting them over Christmas.  I miss them all so much, and it has been a particularly sad thought that Gretta might grow up without a "spoilin' aunt" nearby.  I was overjoyed that she warmed up so quickly and became my little buddy over the 10 days I was there.

We did all sorts of fun things, dates with the kids, pizza n' spoilin', playing lots of Mario Kart and Dumb Ways to Die, and just being happy to be with family.  I missed their cute faces the second I left!

Christmas Eve Nativity:

Opening their Christmas Eve present:

Kita got a book:

She started reading it immediately.  Totally reminded me of myself.

Gretta got a book:

What did she think of the book?

and Ryker got a blurry picture, but he also got Rescue Bots.

On Christmas morning they were tortured by their parents into taking pictures before opening gifts:

But then we got down to business:

Ryker opened his gifts in a weird place for me to get a good picture angle, but he did get this lumberjack jacket that he wore pretty constantly for the rest of my trip,

Kita likes to roll all her celebrating into one week a year so we celebrated her birthday on Saturday.

She likes her birthday presents to go under the tree as well, and Gretta had no problems bringing her gifts to open.

I tool Kita to Old Navy and let her pick out an outfit for her birthday.  She immediately picked out this dress and bought it.

*That is my kind of shopping....one and done.

And of course, there was cake.

Ryker is growing out his hair from a perpetual buzz cut.  It is now long enough to mohawk, and I love it.

And there was just a bunch of general cuteness that makes me miss these kids so darn much!

Try clicking this link  >>> Oops!  

I cannot stand how cute her oops! is.  I get major cuteness aggression every time I watch this.

And my visit was over all too soon.  I left this...

Flew back to this...

And hopefully will get to see a lot more of them in the near future!

The Wonderful World of (a) Beaver

Because I hadn't been able to see most of T3 while I was in Texas in October, KiLee suggested that I come for Christmas.  I thought that seemed like an excellent idea, and decided it should be a surprise for the kids.  I sent them a Christmas countdown chain and each link had a activity for them to complete (e.g., cleaning their room, including their little sister, writing Christmas cards), and told them if they completed all their tasks I would send them a surprise on Christmas Eve.

Before we get to that, though...

I flew out of Long Beach on Christmas Eve.  Have I mentioned how much I like the Long Beach airport? Another flight out on a notoriously busy travel day (Good Day L.A. had reporters at LAX reporting on long lines and reminding travelers to "pack your patience".), and LGB was an even easier experience than Thanksgiving.

My gate was 10 or 11, the far reaches of the Long Beach airport... you can see just how gigantic (not) LGB is when all the gates are lined up like this.


This hat was on my flight.


I had mentioned Buc-Ees to some of my friends; they did not believe me when I told them how fantastically awesome it is.  So I took pictures to illustrate my point:

First of all, there is the fact that Buc-Ee is a beaver,


And, all the stores have a statue of the beaver outside.


Then, there are the staggering number of gas pumps


And the price of gas


Also, the sheer size of the store, you cannot see the other end in this picture.

And we can't forget that someone welcomes you every time you come through the doors.

Not to mention the variety and selection of good you can buy at Buc-Ees:

Did you need a pea-shooter?

Got it.

Did you need a baby shower gift?

Buc-Ee has you covered.

A first book for your todler?

No problem.  Buc-Ee will teach your kid to read.

A stuffed beaver?


A Christmas (or any other themed) T-shirt?


Even one for the new baby,


A trailer hitch cover plate?


Gent's furnishings?


Cast iron cookware?


Pajamas?

Buc-Ees has you covered for all of that.

But wait, what if you're hungry?  Would you like some gourmet fudge?

Just choose from the 20-ish flavors, or buy a sampler box.

Jerky?

A gazillion flavors, not to mention multiple meats?

A full meal, hot dinner, with specialty Texas BBQ?


Popcorn...Got it.


Any type of snack, really.


Maybe you want something healthy, maybe fresh produce...


Smoked meat:


And a bakery complete with kolaches (both fruit and meat filled, but not together - Buc-Ee has his limits!)




And if you want to smoke your own meat...  you can definitely buy your own smoker.


I didn't take photos of the best part of Buc-Ees, the bathrooms.  Seriously folks, you have never seen clean restrooms until you see them at Buc-Ees.  I guarantee they are cleaner than yours.  GUARANTEED.

Anyhow, with a couple of kolaches and a soda, I made a right turn and headed 70 miles down Hwy 21 (passing my favorite landmarks like: Dime Box, the miniature donkey farm, the Whoop Stop, Elm Creek Cafe - I can never tell if they're open, Royalty Pecan Farms, and a million other little things) to the home of Kyle Field, the 12th man, and Gig 'Em - College Station, and my favorite Texans!

Impromptu Vacation

One of the perks of living in a cruise port city is that sometimes there are super cheap last minute cruise fares.  So immediately after returning from my Thanksgiving trip, I boarded the Carnival Inspiration for a long weekend in Mexico.

The only port was Ensenada and there wasn't really anything shore excursion-wise that peaked my interest, and I was pretty exhausted so after getting off the ship and walking around for approximately five minutes (turns out you need to take a bus into the city proper, and I was exhausted and looking for zero hassle), I re-boarded and hung out on the basically empty ship for the rest of the day.

I can say that I had a good time, and paid a really low price, but I would't recommend a 3 day cruise to anyone, basically ever.  It felt like the process of boarding and disembarking was too cumbersome for such a short vacation.  The bar service was far inferior to any cruise (although my cabin steward, and dining staff were awesome), the bar people always made it seem like it was an inconvenience to fill my drink order, and the food was terrible.  Really.  Terrible*.

The ship was decorated for Christmas so I did take photos of the ship.







The red thing in the bottom right corner was a Santa's Mailbox.  I thought it was cute, and I wonder if the Camp Carnival folks wrote letters or had Santa answer letters.





The book I read on the ship:


And 2 of the 3 towel animals.  Apparently,  I dinna fash meself, and take a picture of the 3rd.






Oh, and also I basically threw stuff in a suitcase, and took this totally matching pair of sandals on the cruise.  Needles to say, I didn't wear sandals on this trip.



*exception:  warm chocolate melting cake