My Favorite Christmas Carols

Back in the 1960's the Firestone Tire Company released a new album of Christmas Carols every year. My mom bought one almost every year. I loved to listen to those albums played on my parents' Magnavox stereo. If I had a turn table I would still listen to them. So of course, I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, etc. Frankly, I don't have much use for many of the "new" Christmas songs (except for a very few). Because they don't make 'em like they used to. So in no particular order here are my favorites:

1. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. One of the best!
2. White Christmas by Bing Crosby. I'd love to visit Holiday Inn!
3. Away in a Manager by Julie Andrews. One of those Firestone Favorites, but her whole album is available for purchase.
4. Star Carol by Anna Maria Alberghetti. Another one of the Firestone gems.
5. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Perry Como.
6. Jingle Bells by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. One of the fun songs from "A Christmas Story."
7. I'll Be Home for Christmas by Bing Crosby. The most popular Christmas carol during WWII and the Korean War.
8. Candlelight Carol by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Beautiful.
9. Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson. One of the new ones.
10. The Chipmunk Song by The Chipmunks. Another one from my childhood.
11. A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives. We watch "Rudolph" every year.
12. Christmas Time is Here by Jeffrey Osborne. Always reminds me of Charlie Brown.
13. Irish Carol by Julie Andrews. Same Julie Andrews album.
14. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by the Three Stooges. We had an old 45 record with some Three Stooges Christmas Songs. I found them on I Tunes. I was so happy!
15. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters. One semester at BYU we played it continually in the Business Office Lab.
16. O Come Emmanuel by Voice Male. Emmanuel shall ransom captive Israel.
17. Oh Holy Night by Nat King Cole, Josh Groban, Martina McBride and Jeffrey Osborne.
18. Penguin, James Penguin by Brad Paisley. Brad Paisley is pretty funny!
19. Silent Night by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The one from A Christmas Story.
20. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin. A Dean Martin Twist on a old song.


My despised list (If I don't hear these during the Christmas season, I'm happy.)

1. Santa Baby by Madonna. Gag.
2. The Twelve Days of Christmas (Except the one by Straight No Chaser. It's pretty amusing.)
3. The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot by Nat King Cole. Makes me SAD every time I hear it.
4. The Christmas Shoes. Argggg.
5. My Favorite Things. This is NOT a Christmas song.
6. Anything by Mariah Carey.
7. I Saw Three Ships. What do ships have to do with Christmas?
8. Last Christmas I Gave you my Heart. Yuck.

Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. Don't you just love the new cool title to my blog. My son Stephen made it. He rocks!

Musical Talent (and who in our family has it)

I have always loved music! I had a great time retreating to my bedroom when I was a kid, turning on the record player and pretending I was a famous singer. Well that never happened, but tonight was a real treat because Sam's school choir sang at the Mesa Temple Gardens amongst all the sparkling Christmas lights. They did a wonderful job.

I like to sing, but my voice leaves a lot to be desired. I can only hear the soprano part so that's what I have to sing even though I can't reach the high notes. My singing is limited to singing along with my I pod and singing in the ward choir.

On the other hand, two of my children, April and Sam, have beautiful voices. So I pretty much live my dream through them. When April sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" at Stephen's missionary farewell, I was so extremely happy that she had been blessed with such a beautiful voice. When I hear Sam sing at his voice lessons, I am blown away by his awesome manly voice. These two have been blessed with what I always wanted--a beautiful singing voice. So I listen to April and Sam, and am very grateful that Heavenly Father gave them musical talent. They give me chills every time they sing and I also usually cry. I'm grateful that I can enjoy their wonderful voices, especially at Christmas time when the music is so delightful!

Christmas concert at Mountain View next week and I can't wait!

The Famous Sour Cream Cookies

This is picture of my mom, Vera Rasband, dressed as a witch for Halloween. She liked Halloween a lot. One of my favorite Halloween memories occurred when I was in the first grade. Mom dressed up as a ghost and Margie dressed up as Frankenstein and they visited each of their children's classes on Halloween. They didn't have to check in at the office and they brought homemade popcorn balls. I didn't know who they were and wondered why this ghost kept hovering around my desk. There were five children between the two of them in elementary school so they made a whole lot of popcorn balls.

One of her most famous Halloween treats was Sour Cream Cookies. She passed them out to trick or treaters and people came from all over to get a cookie. In honor of Halloween here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Sour Cream Cookies

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
About 3 1/2 cups of flour (enough to make a soft dough)

Mix sugar and shortening together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream.

Chill dough well.

Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Frost with your favorite frosting.

Enjoy!

Let Me Hear a Melody. . .

The music conductor Mitch Miller died yesterday. He was 99 years old. Most of you probably don't know who Mitch Miller is. I do. He was one of my mom's favorites. We had quite a few Mitch Miller albums at our house and we watched Sing Along With Mitch on T.V. Mitch Miller conducted a male chorus and they sang The Yellow Rose of Texas, The Children's Marching Song, and at Christmas--Must be Santa. I loved marching around the living room to his music--because that's what it made you want to do. When I discovered that I could actually buy Mitch Miller CD's, I bought two. Now I can march all around my house to the sound of March From the River Kwai (which is from the movie Bridge on the River Kwai which if you haven't seen you really should. Alec Guiness is fantastic in his performance as the ranking officer in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Anyway, I digress.

I actually didn't know that Mitch Miller was still alive (until yesterday that is). When I read that he had died, I had one of those "ahh" moments. The kind that I have when a recall a wonderful childhood memory. I think I will go listen to the Yellow Rose of Texas for old time's sake.

My K-Mart Shoes

All this rain and something a third grader said today brought back the memory of my K-mart shoes. The third grader said her mom wouldn't let her wear her new shoes because it was raining.

Flash back to 5th grade. We always used to stop at the K-mart on Parley's way in Salt Lake City on the way home from Salt Lake. Mom used to do her grocery shopping there and the rest of us would hang out next door at the regular K-mart. I found some beautiful shoes that I just couldn't do without. I begged my mom and she finally relented. They were a great deal--only about $5.

The first day I wore them to school it rained. Those K-mart shoes totally fell apart. I don't mean things came loose. They fell apart. I think they must have been made out of cardboard or something. We never bought shoes at K-mart again.

The Wasatch Wave Society Column

The Wasatch Wave is the weekly newspaper for Wasatch County in Utah. When I was a child, Annie Clyde wrote the society column for Heber and Fawn Kohler wrote the column for Midway. These women wrote the People magazine of their day. They left no stone unturned for a good story. Fawn had a fondness for adjectives. She never met one she didn't like. So for your enjoyment, here's my society column for the past week.

Carol Williams, her daughter April Shelly, sister-in-law RaKay Dance, and sister-in-law Stacie Lake (RaKay and Stacie are the daughters of Lamond and Jaselene Williams of Price, Utah), traveled to a Jowell family reunion in Scofield, Utah. The Jowells are Jaselene's mother and father (who are deceased). The reunion was hosted by Lamond and Jaselene Williams at their cabin located by the beautiful, blue Scofield Reservoir. The Jowell family consists of five sisters--Arlene, Merlene, Juantia, Jaselene and Patsy. All sisters were in attendance except for Patsy. The family enjoyed a dinner of fried chicken, turkey, potatoes, salads, fruit, and cookie bars. After dinner, the family enjoyed visiting and playing games.

Stephen Williams, son of Gary and Carol Williams, traveled in his new Honda Civic across the country to visit his friends, Drew and Lauren Stacey in Columbus, Ohio where Drew is attending medical school at Ohio State. He stopped along the way, to visit many places of interest. These included Mt. Rushmore, Nauvoo, Washington D.C., Springfield, Illinois (home of Lincoln), Gettysburg, Pennslvania, Independence, Missouri, and Abilene, Kansas. We are sorry to report that Stephen got a ticket in Independence. He is now visiting his parents.

On Sunday, Gary and Carol Williams hosted a dinner for all their children. The children all enjoyed their mother's good dinner. Isn't it nice that families can get together.

And a good time was had by all!!

Three Great Artists

I am amazed at the artistic talent in my family. I admit it, I'm also jealous. It's always amazing to me how people look at a blank page and put what is in their head onto the paper.

My niece Grace visited me this month. She is almost five, her birthday is next month. She likes to draw princesses with big lips, fancy dresses and cleavage. No stick figures for this girl. She reminds me of her cousin. . .

Stephen whose choice of subject was super heroes--the Flash was his favorite. The picture below was chosen for the cover of the literary magazine at Mountain View. We have a huge painting of Spiderman on a wall in the basement. Stephen takes after my brother. . .

Rich who is also a great artist. I seem to remember a lot of monsters coming out of his pencil. He would also entertain us with sketches he had drawn in Fast and Testimony meeting. You have to admit, that is sometimes a very fertile field to find great subjects. There was also a picture of an old man that hung on my parents wall.

I'm grateful for these talented people because there is nothing like watching a great artist at work.

Christmas Carol

Long ago in a different city, in a different state, I attended church in this building--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Heber 1st Ward. The bishop of the ward was George Holmes. My dad was the financial clerk, so I used to hang out with him after church while he waited for people to bring their tithing into the clerk's office. He wrote them a tithing receipt and they would be on their way. Bishop Holmes was there a lot also. I don't remember how it started, but he began to call me "Christmas Carol." Know what--it totally fits me.

When I started this blog, I knew it had to have something to do with being called "Christmas Carol." I LOVE Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. I have the decorations to prove it, but it's not just the decorations, or the food, or the presents, or the Christmas programs, or even having family all around. It's remembering and being thankful for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the fact that because of his atonement, I can live with my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and my family forever and that's the MOST IMPORTANT thing! All these good and wonderful things are what I think of when I think about Christmas. That's why I think it's great to have a little Christmas around all year and when other people look at my blog I want them to have that Christmas feeling too.