Christmas 2008

Christmas has come and gone, and what a wonderful Christmas it was.

Early Christmas Eve, the roads full of snow and ice melted a bit to slush, so Chris and I took this opportunity to escape our cooped up apartment and venture into town and buy groceries. It looked as though there hadn't been a delivery there in a while. All the vegetable had been picked through and there was not much left, however, I bought as many veggies as I could.

We decided to "try" to go to bed early that night, I emphasize try because we both went to bed quite late. At a quarter to nine Chris and I snuggled up while I read the poem "Twas The Night Before Christmas", by Clement Clarke Moore. It is a new tradition for us that we have started, and we love it.

We were both so excited for Santa to come. As soon as I heard Chris snoring in the other room, I stole away into the den, which we had designated our official Christmas Room, where nothing but Christmas is allowed. I unburied the presents I had hidden and began to wrap and prepare them; I wanted to hurry so that when Santa came I wouldn't be in his way.

Near the end of this whole process I heard Chris wake, and I quickly doused the lights. As I listened to his footsteps go down the hall, I held my breath, hoping that he would not open the door and find me. After a few minutes had gone by, I very slowly and stealthily turned the door knob as quietly as possible and crept down the hallway. I found Chris at his computer, but noticed that he looked like he was up to something...perhaps my Christmas Present...so I respected his space.

That night it was as hard to sleep as it had been when I was a child. I was so excited to see the look on Chris's face when he saw our presents from Santa; I couldn’t wait. The next morning at 6 A.M. we both woke up full of Christmas Spirit and excitement. I began chopping up fresh apples and peeling oranges for a fruit and cheese platter. When we were both ready, we entered the Christmas Room together.

Santa had come and he had done a fabulous job. We all opened our presents, including the kitties, then enjoyed a Christmas movie "A Charlie Brown Christmas", while we ate our fruit platter for an early breakfast.

At 9 A.M. Bryan came and picked us up to go spend Christmas at my Mom and Dad's house. It was a very slippery, snowy drive; I was a little nervous. It took us over an hour and a half to get to our destination. When we got there, Kylie showed us all of her Christmas presents, and we got to watch Dominique open her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Suchanski. Chris and I got to open presents too. I got the DVD "Neena & Veena Belly Dance Workouts", which is awesome, because that is exactly what I've been wanting.

After we had been there for about twenty minutes, Bryan was ready to go; he was very excited and anxious to get home and have Christmas with Dominique. We all decided to go and watch Dominique open her presents.

On the ride home, Chris, Dominique, Bryan, and I all experienced a magical Christmas Card moment. As we pulled around a snowy bend we slowed to a complete stop to watch a family of deer pose out in the middle of a meadow, in the most perfect Christmas Card pose I have ever seen. They were beautiful. They slowly moved out of this pose and that's when we scrambled to find a camera. Luckily Bryan had his camera with him, so I'll have to ask him for a copy. They ventured out onto the road, and it almost looked as if the biggest deer was challenging the truck, but it stood it's ground until it decided it was safe for the others. They gathered again closely together and slowly walked down the middle of the road in the opposite direction we were going. It was a precious moment, and a very awesome one to share.

At Bryan's house we feasted on a big Christmas breakfast with yummy hash browns and eggs, and a choice of eggnog or juice. We ate while we watched the movie "A Christmas Story." When everyone was done eating we followed Dominique to the Christmas tree and watched her open all of her many presents. Santa was very good to Dominique, so she must have been a very good girl this year.

After all the Christmas excitement everyone migrated back to their own homes. Chris and I came home happy, but exhausted; falling asleep to the lull of Christmas Specials, we both took a long winters nap.

Merry Christmas Everyone

All Things Christmas

M & M Mondays

It's the most wonderful time of the year. I love the magic that grows inside me and all around me this time of year; the happiness and cheer that seems to spread, watching children's faces as they talk about snow, Christmas, and Santa, wrapping presents, putting up the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas carols, and coming in out of the cold and warming up under a blanket while watching Christmas movies. Most of all I love spending time with the ones I love.
Christmas music is a fun tradition that I love to honor each year and I have a pretty long list of Christmas songs that I love to sing and listen to this time of year so I will share just a few. I found these two videos on youtube to share with you:








Another tradition I like to honor each year is popping popcorn and watching a good Christmas movie or TV Christmas Special. There are a few shows that I love to watch each year, such as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Christmas Vacation", and "A Mickey's Christmas Carol". I love it! I have included a link that will take you to my Youtube Channel where you will be able to watch a bunch of Christmas Cartoons, Christmas TV Specials, and Christmas Commercial. There is also a Playlist for Christmas music there for you to enjoy, it is still being constructed, so each time you visit there may be something new that I have added for you.

http://www.youtube.com/homework28


I hope you enjoy, I know I will :D
Merry Christmas To All, And to All a Good Night!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

SNOW DAY

Wow what a day! An unusual and extremely fun one for Oregonians. Why's that? Well, snow is not very common here, and when it does snow, it is usually gone within an hour. However, that was not the case today.

My niece came over today to announce the snow and get me to come out and play, and so Chris, Dominique, and I all had a very fun snow day. We did many fun things together:

We had a snowball fight.


We went for a winter wonderland walk in the woods.
















Then we went to the park and built a snowman on a park bench; however, by then my camera died and so I couldn't take anymore pictures.
It was such a fun day. The snow fell for a long time with great big flakes. It painted the whole town white and you could see the occasional car go by, but not as many as you would have seen on a clear day. No, today was a special day, because it felt as if time stood still so that we could enjoy winters play day.
When we got home we snuggled up on the couch together with big warm quilts and watched Christmas movies while we ate popcorn and candy.

Ah; the perfect cozy winter day.

Introducing Music and Movie (M&M) Mondays

Music and Movie Mondays



Hey everyone, this is my very first entry on my Music and Movie Mondays. Over the next few Mondays I will be writing about my favorite music genre, Jazz. I wanted to start by telling you about my favorite jazz musician, The Father of Jazz, Mr. Louis Armstrong.

For many years it was thought that Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans on the 4th of July, 1900. It was what Louis thought anyway, however, it was discovered that Louis’s birth certificate proved that Louis was really born on August 4 1901. Soon after his birth his father, William Armstrong, abandoned him and his mother, Mary Ann Armstrong. He was born and raised in one of the toughest and poorest neighborhoods in New Orleans where he was raised by his maternal grandmother until he was five. When his mother became very sick he went to live with her. To support Louis and his little sister Beatrice, his mother became a prostitute, leaving Louis alone often to care for himself and Beatrice.

At a very young age, Louis started doing multiple jobs to help support his family. He would sing on street corners for pennies, worked a junk wagon, cleaned graves for tips, delivered milk, and sold many things such as coal, bananas, and newspapers.

His first instrument was a simple tin horn; he used it to draw attention to the junk collector’s wagon on which he worked. At age 7 the junk dealer he worked for helped him buy his first cornet for $5 at a pawn shop after which he taught himself to play.

At age 11 he had his first formal lesson on the cornet in the Colored Waif’s Home, a reform institution. He was sent there after shooting off a pistol into the air at a New Year’s Eve Celebration, December 31, 1912. “My whole success goes back to that time,” said Louis. There he joined the school band and was soon made leader. He was released on June 16, 1914, after which he decided to pursue a career as a musician.

Armstrong later began to perform with pick-up bands in small clubs, funerals, picnics, and parades around town; this is how he captured the ear of Joe “King” Oliver, a member of Kid Ory’s Band, one of the finest Cornet players around. Oliver became his mentor, and when Oliver left for Chicago, Armstrong took his place in Kid Ory’s Band.

In 1922 Louis and his first wife, Daisy Parker, moved to Chicago to join his mentor, Joe Oliver, becoming a member of “King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. In 1923 Daisy and Louis divorced; soon after Louis married the band’s pianist Lillian Hardin. Over the next few years Louis traveled between New York and Chicago playing and recording with several bands.

In 1925 Louis returned to Chicago, where he switched from the Cornet to the trumpet and vocals. From 1925 to 1928, Louis led a recording group known as the “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven”. They produced nearly 90 recordings, which included hits such as “Potato Head Blues”, “Big Butter and Egg Man”, “The Heebie Jeebies”, and “West End Blues”. It was 1926 when the “Hot Five” recorded “The Heebie Jeebies”, which was a song about a popular dance. It was the second time Louis had ever sung on a recording. During the second verse of the song Louis dropped his sheet music and could not remember the words to the song. He improvised and began to scat “Deep-dah-jeep-bop-a-dobby-on-doe-dah, leep-a-la-da-dee-da-dee-on-bo.” Although Louis hadn’t invented this type of singing, it was he who had been the first person to record it. People loved it, and it sold over 40,000 copies in just a few weeks.

In 1935 Joe Glaser became Armstrong’s manager, and remained his manager for the rest of his career, helping Armstrong become an international star. With Glaser as his manager, Louis performed in films, on the radio, and in the best theaters, dance halls, and night clubs. With Glaser, Louis recorded hits such as “Mack the Knife”, and “Blueberry Hill”. In 1964 his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” reached number one on the billboard charts. By this time in his life, people knew him more for his singing than his trumpet playing since his lips had become damaged by a lifetime of horn playing.

Louis was one of the very few African Americans to appear regularly in Hollywood films; he was known to bring a film to life. He appeared in 28 full-length films and many short features from 1931 to 1969. His last film in 1969 was a musical called “Hello Dolly” starring Barbra Streisand and Gene Kelly.

Louis Armstrong married again for the last time in 1942 to Lucille Wilson, a dancer at the Cotton Club where Louis and his band had been playing. They bought a home in Corona, Queens, where they lived out the rest of their days together.

He became “Ambassador Satch” for America after World War II, spreading good will around the world; he toured Europe, Africa, Japan, Australia, and South America. By the 50’s Louis had become established as an international celebrity.

Armstrong, with his great big beautiful piano key smile and his unforgettable sandpapery voice, is an American icon for Jazz lovers everywhere. He performed regularly until recurring health problems gradually put an end to his trumpet playing and singing. In the last year of his life he traveled to London twice, appeared in over a dozen television shows, and performed at the Newport Jazz Festival to celebrate his 70th birthday.

Louis died in his sleep on July 6, 1971. Since then his legend has lived on. Dizzy Gillespie once said of Louis Armstrong: "If it hadn't been for him, there would have been none of us. I want to thank Mr. Louis Armstrong for my livelihood." Miles Davis agreed: "Louis has been through all kinds of styles. You know you can't play anything on a horn Louis hasn't played." This was true for many other Jazz musicians who had been greatly influenced and inspired by the music of the great Louis Armstrong, and in my opinion the greatest Jazz musician that ever lived.

Bibliography_______________________________________________________________

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