The spirit of the season

I've been crashing for the last few days. I think walking around in the cold, or rather standing around in it while the pup did his sniffing thing, finally caught to me. I wasn't feeling that great but it seems to be passing. Meanwhile, I'm trying to work up some Christmas spirit. I've decided to start torturing you with my favorite Christmas carols. This one is my all time, number one fav.



This song always reminds me of Ronnie Sarazin now. Ron was such a odd guy. He had a reputation as a mean old man, a genuine Scrooge and God knows there were many times when I was bartending for him that I thought he deserved it, but there was a soft side to him, that most people never got to see. He knew this was my favorite and at Christmastime he would make sure it was on the juke box and he would always cough up the quarters to play it for me, every time I had a shift.

I think he may have secretly really liked Christmas carols as well, but still he did for me. Considering how really stingy he could be, I always found it touching. In many ways he was good friend and I miss him sometimes.

Meanwhile, if you need snow to get into the spirit, this is a gorgeous winter video from Finland. I'll be viewing that one more than once. That's kind of the only downside to Christmas in the south. Being such a lifelong Yankee, it never quite feels like the holiday since we so rarely see the white stuff where I am.