Archive for December, 2007
Christmas Card Attempts!
We were planning on sending out a Christmas card with the pets dressed up in their Christmas best. Don’t think that’s going to happen …. Santa and the Elf did not cooperate!
Get to know your friends, Christmas Edition!
Got this post idea from my friend Lauren.
You know those “Get to know your friends” surveys? I think it’s funny they are referred to as “Get to know your friends” because I could probably complete these surveys on behalf of Becky, Ginny and Katie. That’s not getting to know them at all! J
Here is the Christmas version! Fill it out and send to your friends (including hilstreet)
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! (a creative magazine advertisement is the perfect size to wrap a CD, FYI)
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial – reduce, reuse, recycle! (I still use the 22D tree)
3. When do you put up the tree? Friday after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down: New Year’s Day. So sad.
5. Do you like eggnog? Morgan’s got me drunk. At 9:00 a.m.!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? The Miracle Piano Teaching System. A computer taught me piano. I only know one song – Yesterday by the Beatles … so … It’s best to hire a real person. Like Stacie.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes! It was a wedding gift from the Southern Baptist Gossip Circle (i.e. Ryan’s mother’s friends)
8. Hardest person to buy for? Ryan’s family (including Ryan himself).
9. Easiest person to buy for? Me. I leave hints EVERYWHERE. And I have cheap hobbies: reading, running, and cooking.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My mother is a hippy. There are too many to name.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail pics for the fridge!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 14.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Only for White Elephant.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? “Hot Dish”
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear – I am a purist!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Hymns, non-Hymns
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?OOOOOOOOOOOKlahoma!
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Of course.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Spire!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Eve night!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Not seeing my family because I am married and I have to be “fair” to Husbanks. J
23. Your Christmas tradition: Christmas Eve!
Hil Street Review – Best Christmas Songs (Baby Jesus!) Category!
Advent! We await the arrival of Baby Jesus.
A miraculous time where we celebrate and learn about the miracles, humility and mystery of Christ’s birth and the Virgin Mary. Advent is most notably celebrated every year through music.
Here is Hil Street’s Favorite Favorite list – We use this music to praise Christ as we wait for His coming!
10. Joy to the World - Ryan and I used this as our wedding processional! It is a great song to listen to while running out of a church.
9. Children, Go Where I Send Thee, Peter, Paul and Mary: My first concert was Peter Paul and Mary. Because my mother is a hippy. I was three. No, that is not normal. This song echoed throughout our house during the season.
8. Silent Night – I received a new respect for this song when we sang it at the end of Good Friday services. Now, this song reminds me of Christmas and Easter. Hil Street recommends you listen to it during Lent this year.
7. O Holy Night – Tenor anyone? This song is at its best when a tenor can belt out those notes. Daren Butler sang this at our wedding.
6. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Another tenor masterpiece.
5. Christmas Song, Dave Matthews Band - Jesus changed the way we viewed the world through grace, mercy and unending love. Dave goes through the whole story of Christ’s life, focusing on love.
4. O, Come All Ye Faithful – This triumphant song reminds us that this little baby is a king!
3. Coventry Carol –The deep minor chords of this haunting a cappella carol convey a mother’s lament about Herod’s order to kill all infants. Call me a Wesleyan, but nothing makes me feel the mystery and wonder of advent like the chords of this English carol.
2. Handel’s Messiah– What is better than the Hallelujah chorus? This needs no explanation.
1. Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming – This one is from my ancestors. This German carol focuses on the experience from Mary’s perspective – surprised, frightened but beautiful as the chosen mother of the Messiah.
Your Shows – Writers Strike!
Leanne sent me this link. You can check to see how many of your favorite shows are left as of today.
I think this means that we won’t have any Christmas specials. No Chrismukkah!
Excercise Your Right to Love Christmas!
I like to run in the morning. I am a busy bee in the evenings so I like to do as many things before work as possible. Working out in the morning gets something out of the way … and the dog is awake anyway so somebody has to be up. 
But I don’t run in the mornings during the Christmas season! I run outside so you better bet I am looking at every decorated house in my neighborhood! This makes working out FUN!
Here comes Santa Claus …
Children all around the world have something in common on December 24 … 1. They go to bed on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa and then 2. wake up in the morning to open their presents.
Not in my family. See, we grew up with parents in medicine. My father was dedicated to education. Emergency Room education. Emergency rooms don’t close for Christmas. AND my mother is a nurse at a retirement home … and those don’t close either. Marrying a man working for a grocery store was no problem – working the day after Thanksgiving is a piece of cake.
So, growing up, we opened presents on Christmas Eve night. We’d be sent somewhere … a neighbor’s house usually … and then we’d get a call from Dad, “You all are the BEST children in the world … so Santa started here! You get your presents first. Come on home!”
We’d run home and see the presents proving that Santa did, in fact, start his international journey with us. In central Oklahoma.
This year, I’ll spend Christmas morning with Ryan’s nephew, Gus. We’ll have “Christmas morning.” (What is this?) And we will wake up to open presents.
I’m sure I will enjoy it … but there is a part of me that will never let go of my quirky Christmas traditions. I’m sure we all have them. Gilligan (cat) got a full plate of food on major holidays. Ryan’s family put Christmas cards on the tree like they were ornaments.
Any quirky Christmas traditions, Hil Street readers?
Hil Street Review – Best Christmas Songs (non-Jesus) Category!
Who knew that a blog post about Bad Christmas Music would be Hil Street record-worthy. Thanks for all the comments!
Now, I will review my Top Twelve Favorite Commercial Christmas Songs (The music closest to my heart, Christmas hymns, will be reviewed at a later date). These are Hil Street’s favorites so I am sure I have left some of yours out or already put some of your favorites on my bad list.
Many of these come from one CD. 1935 -54 were vital years in the Christmas-music recording industry. If you don’t already have the Billboard’s Greatest Christmas Hits 1935-54 buy it – now. Don’t even finish reading this post. Get on iTunes and download it – it’s classic! I’ve been listening to it every year since middle school.
Hil Street’s Best Christmas Songs (non-Jesus) Category!
12. The Twelve Days of Christmas, John Denver and the Muppets: This song is long. But not when the Muppets make every line funnier than the one before.
11. Sleigh Ride: Who doesn’t love a good woodblock part? Or a whip?
10. Baby, It’s Cold Outside, Dean Martin: Nothing says Christmas like smokin’ and drinkin’ with your boyfriend past curfew. No? Not in your holiday traditions? In all seriousness – this song may not have anything to do with Christmas, but Starbucks made it the title track of its 2007 Christmas mix and it’s in Elf so I am counting it.
9. The Christmas Song: While Nat King Cole is known as this song’s most famous performer I have to hand it to Jonathan who sang this at our wedding. I miss your bass voice, Johnny G!
8. White Christmas, Bing Crosby: My second favorite Bing does it best (Chandler is my favorite). This is the opening number on the Billboard 1935-54 CD.
7. Christmas Island, Andrews Sisters with Guy Lombardo: Also on the 1935-54 Billboard collection, this song reminds me of my December honeymoon to Hawaii.
6. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Harry Connick Jr.: What up Will Graves. I love Harry’s version of this one.
5. Carol of the Bells: This song was originally written in Ukranian, and I don’t have a working knowledge of Ukranian, so I don’t know if Carol of the Bells is a hymn or not, so it goes in the Hil Street “non-Jesus” category. Even in English I can’t understand it because it goes so fast. I don’t care about the words anyway - I want to hear this song performed by a bell choir! F and G!
4. Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me, Elvis Presley: Good melody + great harmony + The King + mentions of “Santa” = Christmas greatness.
3. The B.C. Clark Anniversary Sale: Come on Okies! B.C. Clark’s Christmas Sale jingle rings in the holiday season. If you grew up in the Sooner State, this song means Christmas.
2. All I want for Christmas is You, Mariah Carey: We are lucky to have been alive at the time this song was recorded and sent to the masses. Pure Christmas Gold in many octaves. Ellie knows what’s up.
1. Santa Baby, Eartha Kitt: Ms. Kitt’s version of Santa Baby is Hil Street’s favorite Christmas tune. First recorded by the original Cat Woman in 1953 makes it another hit on the Billboard CD.
This post is dedicated to the years 1935 - 1954.
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