some thoughts on the sounds of christmas and a great cd mix

god rest ye merry gentlemen.

first off, best of the season to you from me, my kitty gypsy and john, paul, george and ringo



i had a lazy christmas eve morning. i did most of my shopping for my 6 family members (i have no children, this is my mom & dad, sis and her family) on the 23rd. and i taught one guitar lesson as a makeup for my beloved 7 year old student lindley. she had her pageant on thursday so had to reschedule. so when that was over, i walked the two blocks to the guitar store to get some strings and just to putter around and say hello to the guys there.

on the way home (again, most everything i need is walking distance here at duke's east campus neighborhood), i took a shortcut through a vacant lot with a nice meadow-like carpet of grass and some willow trees. as i passed under the trees and reached for the gate handle at the end of the picket fence, i heard that familiar whirring sound of startled doves in flight. but here on christmas eve, it just had a deeper ring to it. doves are a common symbol of peace, but there sure doesn't seem to be much right now and our country seems more militant than it's ever been.

as i came back home, i checked a few email messages and read the baltimore orioles fan blog site for offseason rumours, deals, etc. but the best part of the day thus far was listening to some christmas cd's. my stand alone cd burner doesn't burn worth a damn so it's only really useful now as a 2-disc cd changer. i've found it fun to put in two fairly similar genres of music and hitting shuffle.

today's mix was:

The Chieftains: The Bells of Dublin

and
Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas (various on the Verve label)



and later in the day (in fact, on right now) another nice combination:

The Ventures Christmas Album

and
Booker T and the MG's Christmas album.


so i'm gonna relax maybe another hour, read some of the new tom petty bio or doris kearns goodwin's abraham lincoln bio. and then it's off to my folks' house in garner, nc for dinner and exhanging of gifts. and later i'll maybe watch "holiday inn" or "it's a wonderful life". very low key, but restful.

merry christmas, happy hannuka and happy new year.