Favorite things

It's important to sit back and take count of the good stuff.  The favorite things in life.  So here goes. . .a list of things that make me smile.

• Creme brulee coffee in the morning with French vanilla creamer.  Always delicious but if it has caffeine it ceases to be my favorite thing come bedtime.
• "Brown-Eyed Girl" on the radio in the morning when I get in the car with my brown-eyed girls to go to school.
• Brownies.  Is there ever an occasion that couldn't be enriched by a plate of brownies?  I think not.
• Hot chocolate with French vanilla creamer (tastes like you added marshmallows but you didn't--just creamy amazingness!)  It's especially good at night before bed.
• Down comforters.  I absolutely love when it gets cold enough outside that I can put the down comforter on my bed.  Soft, lightweight and snuggly.  Perfection.
• Bracelets.  I have 3 that I love to wear together; they jingle all day long reminding me of the people who gave them to me.  The first is from my mother and is supposed to have a healing, calming energy.  The second is from my husband from his trip to New York City; he was well advised by an older lady on that trip to pick up a bracelet for me.  And finally I have one that my best friend asked her husband to make for me out of rosary beds.  In a pinch I can use it to say the rosary.
• My grandmother's amethyst ring.  I still remember seeing it on my grandmother's dresser when I was a wee thing.  I couldn't touch it but I knew I wanted it. . .one day.  After my grandmother died, my aunt passed it on to me for my birthday.  I was very touched because my aunt could have passed it to a cousin with a February birthday but she knew just how much I adored the ring so she gave it to me for my August birthday.  My grandmother's daddy gave it to her.  It is priceless.
• My house.  What can I say.  I had the luck of designing my home and getting just what I wanted.  OK, maybe not absolutely everything I wanted.  But that was because I was determined to have a "turn of the century" style home but just after the turn of the next century.  You have to make some trade offs when you update an early 1900's plan to the 2000's.    But we worked with an incredible builder who was willing to work within the limitations of the design and give us a new home with the feel of an old home, right down to the very narrow wood gunstock hardwood flooring we chose and the other 'old" finishes we insisted on having.
• A good old gas furnace with forced warm air.  There is nothing quite like it the first time you turn that baby on when the cold weather hits.  Some people hate the smell.  It brings memories of home for me.  It also delivers warm air for my always cold feet so who can argue with that?
• Mail.  Facebook and texts and email all have their place.  But there is nothing quite like the joy when you schlep out to the mailbox and find a card or letter "just to say hi!"

The weather is a bit gloomy out today so it's been good exercise in happiness for me to work on a list of ten favorite things today.  I can't indulge in coffee, hot chocolate or brownies at the moment.  In fact, I have some errands to run.  Maybe I should check into decaf creme brulee for when I get home tonight.

It is Done.

Thank Goodness!

Christmas 2011 is nothing more than a memory.  Well, if you can look past the strand of lights that never got hung but still sit on the homework counter in the kitchen.  Or the Snowman atop the cabinet in my bathroom.  Ooo. . .and there's a ceramic Christmas tree in my daughter's room (we need someone else to move the dresser so we can unplug it--that's out story).  Silver wreaths on the doors don't necessarily scream Christmas do they? 

OK, so apparently I still have a few jobs to do.

And unfortunately, the job we did last night in taking the ol' tree down was far from perfect.  I soooo love the leftover ornaments with no boxes or better yet, finding the boxes 30 minutes later for ornaments we already stuffed into some other box.  We said we'd fix that next year.  What do you suppose are the chances of that happening?

But for now, the monster, ahem, elephant, in the room is packed away and my living room can return to it's previous glory.  There is room again for the dog to sleep wherever she wants (except on my couch--while she might be a 125 lb Lab, yes, she has slept on my couch as though it was entirely proper).  There is room to play with Barbie and her camper.  And we can see the TV from any chair in the living room.  Always a bonus when you can eliminate that argument right off the bat on family movie night :-)

Auf Wiedersehen oh Tannenbaum!  (And let the blinds be open again!)

So there it is. Just standing there looking at me.

Not that any of you know what it's like.

How can you?

You don't know what it's like living like this.

Keeping the blinds shut so no one else can see.

Having to listen to the comments when my mother comes over.  (You'd think she'd know to just leave it alone. . I mean, she is probably here for a nice homecooked meal so why ruin it with the comments?)

It's not to the point of being completely mortifying yet.  But given that none of my friends are dealing with this one, well, it's kind of lonely.

My Christmas tree is still up.

There.  I said it.

And every time my mom comes into my house she says "Merry Christmas!  Oh.  I thought we were celebrating Christmas or something."

Sigh.

So she had her tree down weeks ago.  She had Dad help her.  And he did.  Willingly.

My husband?  Mostly he wishes he could "will" the tree job to someone else.  Like the kids.  (I know.  Every mother on earth knows that kids are better at putting a tree up than they are taking it down.  Sadly, fathers do not have the same knowledge.  Rose colored glass. . .or whatever.)

I have great hopes.  I hope he realizes that we're taking the tree down tonight.  I can't stand it any longer.  If I allow it to stay up any longer it becomes a Birthday Tree and I cannot start that kind of nonsense.

Can I?

Noooooooo!!!!  It's coming down.  Heading back to it's rightful spot under the basement steps until December rolls around again.

Now might be a good time to say a prayer to St. Jude for us on this one.

I love my job

Really I do.

(Most of the time.)

Today we made bracelets.  It was a hoot!  They worked together so nicely and were competitive and just delightful to work with.

And I get to do the same thing again tomorrow for a while.

Sometimes it really is the little things that make the day.  (And sometimes you really need those little things to make the day!)

Good stuff.  Good stuff indeed.

Top 5?

A friend issued a challenge--what are your top five songs of all time.

Impossible.

How does a girl who grew up listening to The Sounds of the Sixties, Arthur Fielder, The Statler Brothers and who trained as a classical pianist and violinist and then discovered pop and rock limit herself to five songs????

So, this list can't be trimmed much more than this.  Here goes:

Edelweiss--the best version is the one sung by Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music

Red Sovine's Teddy Bear was a favorite when I was a kid.  I'm a daddy's girl and he listened to country music when Mom wasn't around.

Liebestraum and The Spinning Song were 2 that my mom used to play on piano when I was a kid.  So they have to be on the list.

My grandmother played both piano and organ.  I loved to hear her play Hold That Tiger and Wheels.

One of the staples of orchestra when I was in sixth through eighth grade was Sweet Caroline.  You'd think I would have tired of it but no, I love it even now.

I still remember how hard I worked on Moonlight Sonata for my piano solo in eighth grade.  And I still remember how wonderful Mr. Travis was when I got all tripped up memory-wise with the piece so he let me finish with my music.

The Shostakovitch--Symphony No.5, Allegro Non Troppo.  I was just 13 when I was selected to perform with a special orchestra at a convention in Chicago.  This was the last piece in our performance and I can still remember the exuberance when we nailed it! 

When I was 17 my senior solo was Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major.  I found it on a tape or record and made myself a tape to listen to every night before bed.  The piece was too long to perform completely at competition.  My judge was wonderful about the length.  My one sad note is that I was fiercely independent that year and insisted on going to state competition on the bus with friends rather than with my dad.  Stupid girl.  I hurt Dad terribly and didn't get to share the experience with him :-(

A couple of songs stand out for the college years like The Haircut Song by Ray Stevens and The Unicorn Song by the Irish Rovers.  But if I had to cut to just one I would choose When You Say Nothing at All by Keith Whitley.

You know how there are some songs that bowl you the first time you hear them and then you can remember for years to come where you were when you first heard the song?  I have one of those--Garth Brooks' The Dance.  I had just pulled into the driveway at home after a long night at work.  I was in my 82 Cutlass (Light Jadestone with a white vinyl top).  And then the song came on.  I didn't want to miss any of it so I sat in the driveway to hear it to the end.  Wow.

Widor's Toccata was always special to me.  My cousin was just a teenager when he played it as the recessional for my parents wedding.  I was lucky to get him to play for my wedding as well and of course, that had to be our recessional too.

I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me caught my heart when I first heard it.  It gained importance when it just happened to be the song that was playing when my husband held our youngest daughter for the first time.

The first time I heard Sissy's Song by Alan Jackson  I was driving in my car.  I was reduced to tears.  I was flooded with memories from when my sister died.

So there you have it.   A little country, a little classical, a little pop.    A list of my musical memories.

Maybe one day I'll write up my "B list" of songs.  I wonder if I can cut the list to a top 50?