Happy New Year!

I’ve been meaning to update this for a little while, but better late than never, right? Maybe I’ll make a New Year’s Resolution about it…

Anyway, I got to go home for about a week around Christmas.  With the exception of all the snow, being home was quite lovely.  I would like to go on the record as saying that I am pretty full up on white Christmases and will not be requiring any more in the future.  Thanks.  This year’s white Christmas made the roads unsafe to unpassable, so for the first time my parents and I enjoyed a lovely Christmas with just the three of us.  After going through opening of the presents, eating the Christmas brunch my mom has been trying to make tradition for a while, catching up on Christmas movies, and working on a puzzle, we decided to go break with tradition a bit and go to the movies.  Apparently either this is a common Christmas tradition or everyone in town was either snowed in or had families snowed out because the theater was packed!  But Invictus was an interesting and fitting addition to our Christmas day, which was quite enjoyable despite its lack of extended family.  By the end of my stay at home, I had seen all my family, a few close friends, and all the random people I only really see at Christmas Eve church service, so I would label the trip a success.

Back at work this Monday, both my primary supervisors have been out of the agency on extended Christmases, so the year has been off to a bit of a slow start.  My education programs will start up again soonish, but in the meantime home visits have been especially successful (haven’t seen a bug yet this year!), the kids in the socialization program are getting less guarded (i.e. letting their mothers walk away from them without crying as long said mother stays in eyesight), and I finally figured out how much stimulus money is going to housing projects (yes, those “projects”) in East Harlem ($1.2 million of just over $425 million allocated to NYC Housing Authority).

And to complete my very short series on Christmas music, I will highlight the kind of Christmas music that one can play all year round (full disclosure: I feel this way about most Christmas music).  [As an aside, I meant to get this out by Epiphany to get it within the twelve days of Christmas period, but alas, I failed.] That’s right, it’s A Christmas Together by John Denver & the Muppets!  I’ve recently realized how much I love John Denver.  Actually, I think it was around when we listened to John Denver upon entering Colorado on our drive from Wartburg to Denver (yes, I know he’s not actually from Colorado. He was the closest we could find on the iPods available to us).  Anyway, not only do I love a singer who had nothing to gain from throwing his hat into the music censorship battle of 1985, he’s just so genuinely smiley.  Somehow I feel like he was really just that happy, despite the fact that his songs indicate he spent about 83% of his time reflecting on some place other than where he actually was.  This album in particular indicates that perfectly.  I mean, who duets with puppets for 13 tracks?  And manages to make it come of earnest?

For an honorable mention, I call out all those songs made as a band’s “Christmas song” (Happy Xmas War is Over, Wonderful Christmastime, Last Christmas, that one song that’s not even really Christmasy by the folksy singer with an unpronounceable name my mom likes, etc).  These are the songs that, while sometimes covered, will always be primarily associated with a particular artist.  Notice how I didn’t include any artists up there? It’s because I didn’t have to.  You know.  I would also include Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town because in my house, there is only one version (and I’d love to hear someone contest this with my dad).  For any of you who haven’t celebrated Christmas with my dad, it’s the Springsteen version.  This series has been a very brief selection of my favorite Christmas music.  Feel free to contact me at any time for a more extensive discussion/samples.

I hope your new year is off to a good start and you had an enjoyable holiday season!

Meghan

UPDATE: I have no idea why the font is so messed up on this.  Sorry.  I won't let it happen again.  Or I'll try not to.