Fond Memories

Foliage

My mom's favorite.

Because I share my apartment
with felines, I have to be very careful about having any sort of foliage around, because many plants are toxic to them, and they'll munch on anything green or floral.

That is especially true of the traditional Christmas poinsettia plant, which my mother always placed on the fireplace mantle or some other location where our cats could not reach it.


Since I've decided to go traditional with Christmas decorations this year, I am going to include a poinsettia plant, which I can place on the Bose 201 speaker on the other side of the TV from the one supporting my Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

I don't think you can consider your halls fully decked until there is at least one bough of holly somewhere. I haven't figured out just where to put mine yet, but it will probably be on the wreath on my apartment door, and possibly around the base of the Christmas tree as well.

I plan to use actual holly, not the plastic stuff, which never looks particularly realistic.

And, last but not least, I plan on having a sprig of real mistletoe around, in case Angie Harmon drops by...

"I hear she's still single at the moment."

I know, right? It could happen...Christmas is a time for miracles...

Christmas Movies & TV Shows

Original 1992 "one sheet" poster

Other than the Nativity story itself, arguably the best-known Christmas story of all is the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Heaven knows it has been the inspiration for dozens of Christmas movies and TV specials. That speaks well of Dickens's original idea, certainly.

By the time Jim Henson's The Muppet Show debuted in 1976 I was 23 years old, but because the show featured the sort of smart-aleck, wisecracking humor of which I had always been fond, I became a fan immediately.

Henson has passed away a couple of years before work began on The Muppet Christmas Carol, which was directed by his son Brian.



Released on December 11, 1992, and starring the wonderful Sir Michael Caine, it is one of the more faithful cinematic versions of the Dickens story, but it also features the trademark Muppet humor. Highly recommended!

Everyone in Congress Deserves a Lump of Coal

From the perspicacious pen of Mike Ramirez, whose editorial cartoons you should read regularly, as I do.

Until Next Time...

Although it was never included in the Christmas choral programs I took part in when
I was a child, because of my Irish heritage I became acquainted with the traditional Irish Christmas song "The Wexford Carol" at a young age, and it remains a favorite to this day. It is one of the oldest known Christmas carols, with some sources dating it as far back as the 12th century. Its lyrics focus on the Nativity story.

In 2008, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma released his Songs of Joy & Peace album, on which
he collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Dave Brubeck, Diana Krall, and Paquito D'Rivera. The album received a Grammy Award in 2009.

One of the songs included in the project was "The Wexford Carol," on which he collaborated with American bluegrass-country artist Alison Krauss, the award-winning Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, and members of the Silk Road Ensemble including bagpiper Cristina Pato.

Today's send-off is the official video of their gorgeous live-in-the-studio performance
of the classic Irish carol. Quite aside from the beauty of the music, I really enjoy the expressions on the artists' faces as they perform, as I hope you will...