Favorite versions of Christmas Songs

Ok, the time is upon us. HOLIDAY TIME!! And that means lots of Christmas music in the Evans household. I know some people absolutely abhor Christmas music, especially for very long. But we love it! (most of it) So for fun I thought I would list my favorite versions of the classics, and if you have any suggestions please let me know. I'm always up for new songs, but there are so many that it's hard to keep up.

O Holy Night - Martina McBride
Silent Night - don't really have one
Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio (Charlie Brown Christmas)
What Child is This - Jim Brickman
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies + Sarah McLachlan
Carol of the Bells -Manheim Steamroller (The Calling is a close second)
Little Drummer Boy - Ray Conniff Singers
The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
O Come O Come Emmanuel - Michael W. Smith
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland

Commercials that disturb me...

1.) The one for a nose hair trimmer that shows a CLOSE UP of a guy using it for his nose. Seriously, all you could see was the guys nose and him sticking the trimmer up his nostrils.

2.) I can't remember what this product is called, some sort of sound amplifier. It looks like a big silver cicada bug thing that you stick on your ear, I assume to sort of look like a blue tooth piece but it looks really dumb. Anyway, it tells you the many places this sound amplifier would be useful, including at lectures and shows, watching TV, and listening discretely at parties!!! They actually said, "Ever wonder what people are saying at parties? Listen in discretely and find out!" SCARY!!

Things I hope to see in the next 4 years...Pt. 1

This has been a big year. Not only did I have a REAL birthday, but we elected a new president and the summer olympics came and went. These are things that happen every four years (that's an easy way to remember when my real birthday is!), but it only makes me think about how things will be and what will be happening in 2012 (yikes!). Of course I want the economy to improve, our dependence on foreign oil to lessen and the unemployment rate to go down, among other things talked about ad nauseum (and rightly) during the campaign. But here are other things (not just political).

The re-emergence of personal responsibility in our society. With the housing crisis and economic situation our country is in, we seem to have become a victim society. I actually wanted one of the presidential candidates to say, "part of the problem is the american people and the bad choices we have made." Hello, even though there are definitely big companies and greedy CEO's to blame, we also need to take responsibility for our decisions and part in all this. And also I want to start taking more responsibility for the things we want changed in our country instead of letting the government do everything, and expect government mandates and laws to change people's lives.

The Chicago Cubs advancing in the playoffs. They don't have to win the World Series, but just one series, guys. Then maybe you could get that monkey off your back.

A shift in the "entitlement" mentality of my generation and younger (for the most part). I don't know when it happened, and perhaps it's just some people (of course it's not everyone, and noone that reads this blog!) We think that we deserve everything and more that our parents have now, though they have worked 30+ years to get it. We don't buy things with cash anymore, we get ourselves into so much debt that it's not logical that we will ever get out, we have to have certain things in our homes (or certain TYPES of homes) to feel like we belong...but belong to what I don't quite know. It's hollow and empty, and of course I'm guilty of it too. We need to stop trying to fill our lives with "things" and figure out what actually is fulfilling.

Brayden going to Kindergarten. OH MY GOSH. That's crazy.

That's what I can think of right now. I'll add some more when I think of them!

Fall in Freedom Park

Today Brayden and I went to the park, though that's not where I was meaning to go. I wanted to go get his haircut and I got lost along the way (it's in this really complicated and curvy part of town). So I gave up and we went to my most favorite park in Charlotte. It's 75 degrees today, but it still feels like fall since all the leaves are changing and falling! I can't figure out how to do pictures on this site, so they might be in the wrong places.

A night on the town

Tonight Josh had a dinner out for work, so I decided to try and hook up with a friend I haven't seen in a while for dinner, toting Brayden along of course. Now usually Brayden is a champ when it comes to going places, but he's hit this really independent phase in which he doesn't want to follow my directions, or hold my hand when crossing a street, or get out of the way when people are walking toward him (which totally annoys me when it happens with other kids). So my friend lives in a really posh part of town in a totally modern and sweet condo with restaurants and shops walking distance, and a rooftop terrace overlooking uptown Charlotte and other buildings going up in the area called "southend". So we grabbed dinner and ate at her place and Brayden did his best to behave, but he wanted to go down the stairs when I wanted to eat dinner, and he wanted to go up the stairs when I wanted to stay down. So it was pretty much a frustrating night of fussy Brayden and giving my friend a good dose of birth control :) The whole time I was there though it felt like worlds colliding. I was friends with her B.B. (Before Brayden) and spent many a night there drinking wine and pretending I was a hip, urban professional living the high life. And part of me has always wanted to live that life, but it's just never really happened. But tonight, my real life followed me to this other life and I got a glimpse of both together. I know that the moment I left my friend was thankful that she was single and sans child. But all I wanted to do was get Brayden home to where he was comfortable and watch D*ora the E*xplorer, where there is comfortable carpet and not many sharp corners (even though it doesn't look as hip :). Something I think we are all familiar with is the "grass is greener" concept. If we are married with children we look at those living the single life as so appealing, and vise versa. I'm sure my friend would love to have the love of a great man and the joy of raising a child. I think what I realize is that there are many ways to live life, and many places to live that life. The place I'm at is pretty good! Besides, who couldn't love this face?